It’s been exactly one month and four days since Apple released iOS 17.4. Enough time that it’s not even the latest version available, considering that two weeks later they released iOS 17.4.1 to fix the errors and there are even beta versions of iOS 17.5. The fact is that it was a historical update for introducing numerous changes at the European level driven by the new Digital Markets Act which applies across the entire European Union.
One of these changes was Apple’s permission to introduce alternative stores to the App Store. That’s to say, download apps from more places than the App Store itself. And if you start searching now, no matter how much effort and hours you put in, you won’t find anything new. Where are the new app stores for iOS?
The reason why there are still no alternative stores on iPhones
A meme, as always, perfectly expresses the public’s feeling.
Do not panic. Neither Apple deceived us, nor the developers care about this measure. What iOS 17.4 introduced was the technical possibility of arriving from application stores, which will be displayed in the App Store itself, but which will then have their own operation once downloaded.
However, the fact that this possibility is already available does not indicate that the stores are already exposed, since it is obvious that there is still none. Everyone will be able to present the reasons why they have not yet brought their alternative stores to European iPhones, although the most probable and obvious is the lack of time.
In itself, building an app store from scratch is not something that can be done in two days. And yes, it is true that we have long expected Apple to be permissive within the framework of the new European laws. However, it wasn’t until the end of January that they officially confirmed it. This is when interested developers became aware of the regulations applicable to these new stores, in addition to having access to the APIs that allow them to create and put these stores online.
Setapp, Epic Games Store and AltStore are some of the alternative stores already in the works
We therefore see that It was physically impossible for a store to arrive in such a short time. In any case, there is good news for those waiting for the arrival of new stores, since we have already confirmed their arrival this year. Setapp will be one of the first, launching its first beta in April or May at the latest and hoping to have it available to everyone by the end of the year.
The Epic Games Store is also confirmed, bringing “Fortnite” to iPhone alongside other Epic mobile games. It will arrive at the end of the year and the company said there will be titles from other developers as well. Also towards the end of the year we will see AltStore, which has already dared to show what the interface and the download process will look like, in addition to confirming that they currently have two confirmed applications (and also for the end of the year).
It must also be said that not everything will be stores aimed at a large mass, since there will also be application stores that are a little less ambitious in nature. This is the case of the Mobivention App Marketplace, a store intended for companies with very specific professional tools and which, although it was intended to be one of the first, will still take several weeks to officially arrive.
Then yes, There will be third-party app stores, but you’ll still have to wait. Perhaps it will take a little less time by the other announced method, which is to be able to download applications through the browser and which Apple once announced that iOS 17.4 was already available and that it planned to ‘activate from iOS 17.5, a version this will not arrive before May. It will then be time, for the first time and officially, to download applications that do not come from the App Store.
In Applesfera | How to put a password on an application on iPhone: the best tips
In Applesfera | iPhone 16: release date, price, models and everything we think we know about them
