If you buy a new Android, it is very likely that it already comes with a preinstalled application store: the Play Store. This is the official Google store and the one the company prefers you use, but it’s not the only one.
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Although there are other alternative stores, Google’s tactic has encouraged manufacturers to choose to include only the official store; Android has also imposed limits on installing apps from outside the store. This made many people think that Android phones are like iPhones and there is only one way to install apps, through the Play Store. In fact, there are many alternative stores that have their advantages.
Android 14 opens to other stores
These tactics can get in trouble for Google, which has been repeatedly investigated for anticompetitive practices and has several open cases in the European Union. Perhaps in an attempt to appease EU commissioners, Google is working on changes that will make it easier to use alternative app stores.
In XDA Developers They’ve already discovered some of these changes, and they’re promising. Android 14 is perhaps the most open system version yet in terms of allowing other app stores. The novelties will mean that these stores will receive the same functions as the Play Store, both in installing and updating applications.
Android 14 will make it easier to use other app stores
For example, developers can now access “soft updates”, or software updates, which start without interrupting the user experience; in other words, if we are using the application or if it is running in the background, the store can now wait for it to finish before updating it. To do this, Google has implemented a code that allows the store to check the status of an application, in addition to the status of the phone (for example, if we are in the middle of a call).
Another interesting detail is that now an alternative store can become the only one offering app updates. For example, if we are interested update an app through a specific store instead of going through the Play Store. This will be very useful for getting specific versions of an application. Nowadays, if we install an application from a third-party store, the Play Store can update it if it receives a new version; but we may not want that and only get new releases that come out in the alternate store.
Finally, third-party stores will now be able to ask the user for permission to install and update an app. Specialized security stores can take advantage of this, because many times professional users do not want to immediately update to the latest version of an application to avoid possible “bugs”.
As it turns out, many of these features were already available on the Play Store, but now the playing field should be better leveled. We hope other app stores will take advantage of these features.
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