the first alternative app stores are coming soon, for better or for worse

With the introduction of the Digital Markets Act, Apple will be forced to open iOS to competition, particularly in the area of ​​application stores. Very soon, the App Store will no longer be the only option available to users. Other alternative blinds will soon emerge. And in fact, our colleagues from The Verge were able to try one of them in preview. The opportunity to get a taste of the experience on offer.

As you may know, the entry into force of the DMA (Digital Markets Act) will change a lot of things, especially for Apple. To comply with new European legislation, the Apple brand will finally have to open the application store market to competition.

In other words, the App Store will soon no longer be the one and only option available to users. News which obviously does not delight the Cupertino company, which reminds potential suitors that an application store “requires significant accountability such as guidelines for content and moderation processes, anti-fraud measures to prevent scams, transparent data collection policies and the ability to handle disputes.”

Not enough to scare competitors already on a war footing to integrate their alternative marketplace on iOS. As we write these lines, only one third-party app store is currently available in Europe on iOSto know Mobivention, a B2B-focused marketplace that allows companies to distribute their own apps internally. Concerning the general public, the offer is still non-existent.

Alternative blinds are getting ready to land

But things should change soon. We already know that the Epic Games Store or MacPaw’s Setapp must arrive in turn. However, it is the AltStore which should get the ball rolling. This store, born in 2019, intends to offer an experience very different from that offered by the App Store to users and developers.

For example, developers will have the ability to link their Patreon account on their apps to obtain financial support from users (a practice prohibited on the App Store). According to its co-creator Riley Testut, the AltStore for iOS is ready and all that is missing is authorization from Apple to proceed with the launch.

While waiting to obtain the precious sesame, our colleagues from The Verge were able to try a preview version of the alternative store. The opportunity therefore to make a first point on the use of an alternative store on iOS. For better and for worse.

First black point, installation

According to The Verge, one of the first obstacles to widespread adoption of third-party marketplaces will be the complexity of the installation process above all else. For good reason, installing an alternative blind is not necessarily intuitive. Indeed, manipulation requires at least a dozen steps:

• First of all, you will have to click on a link from a browser to start downloading the alternative app store
• A pop-up will then open informing you that your installation settings do not allow markets from this developer
• To remedy this, you must go to your settings, activate the market in question to return to the browser
• Now you have to click on the download link again to receive another prompt and confirm the installation
• You can now open the store and browse the available apps

Also read: iPhone – Apple commits to making it easier to transfer data to an Android smartphone

If in itself, the procedure to follow is not complicated, it has enough steps to make it intimidating or simply painful for the first comer. For The Verge, we must see nothing more thanan attempt by Apple to lure users away from alternative stores.

Fortunately, installing the applications itself is simpler. Because, just click an Install button to start the process. Well, in most cases. If this method actually works for the two apps currently offered by AltStore, namely Delta (a free Nintendo emulator) and Clip (a paperweight), the store was forced to be a little trickier regarding certain apps from third-party developers . For good reason, AltStore allows app providers to add “sources”, namely shared URLs containing JSON files (application metadata). Once these links are added, the apps in question can be downloaded directly from the AltStore. A sort of store within a store to sum it up.

What about applications?

Regarding the applications themselves, how do they work? In this preview version, the AltStore offers only two apps, namely Delta, a free emulator of Nintendo games (NES, SNES, N64, etc.) and Clip, a paperweight. According to The Verge, the experience was excellent.

Downloading ROMs is very easy on Delta via iCloud Drive, while in-game performance was respectable. As for Clip, it proved extremely practical, in the sense that it runs constantly in the background unlike other similar apps available on the App Store. For good reason, clipboard managers on iOS generally have to be opened each time to save a copied item. This is not the case here. On Clip, when the user copies something, he receives a notification allowing him to store the element directly in the app’s clipboard.

To conclude, the American media believes that alternative stores are promising for the moment… Nevertheless and in their current state, they cannot compete with the App Store, the fault of tedious installation processes, and an obvious lack of applications likely to attract the general public. But that could change with the arrival of the Epic Games Store and Setapp.

Source: The Verge