Google has recently started distributing third-party app stores through its Play Store in the US, following a court ruling and its settlement with Epic Games. Now, Google has been ordered by US District Judge James Donato to remove its scary warnings that are shown when users want to install a third-party app store from Google Play.
According to the court, Google is engaging in “anticompetitive friction” intended to prevent users from installing third-party app stores. The company has to make installing an alternative app store as easy as installing an Android app from the Play Store. Changes need to be made within a week.
In court today, Epic Games’ lawyer showed that if you search the Play Store for “store for apps”, no options appear, only physical stores like Walmart. Then, even if you find a third-party app store in Google Play, you first need to press a View button before you can tap Install. The “View” step has to disappear.
Interestingly, when you search for Aptoide, which is the first third-party app store available in the Play Store, you’re not taken to a normal list – you get a banner you need to tap first to be taken to “the third-party app store page”. Google has been ordered to fix this too.