{"id":818705,"date":"2026-07-22T13:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/818705\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T13:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:59:14","slug":"google-is-this-close-to-bringing-third-party-app-stores-to-the-play-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/818705\/","title":{"rendered":"Google is this close to bringing third-party app stores to the Play Store"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img class=\"e_3g\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  title=\"Google Play Logo on Smartphone with White Background\"  alt=\"Google Play Logo on Smartphone with White Background\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Google-Play-Logo-on-Smartphone-with-White-Background.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>C. Scott Brown \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>TL;DR<\/p>\n<p>Google is testing new features in the Play Store, including support for third-party app stores.<br \/>\nAlong with this, we see a new option called Play Labs being tested here.<br \/>\nWe\u2019ve also seen the two-row search bar being prepared for a rollout.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, Google rolled out a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/google-play-store-widgets-system-services-update-3689541\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">massive Play Store update<\/a> with an improved search experience and the ability to try out widgets while an app was being installed. But in addition to these changes, a few more could be in line, as we\u2019ve spotted them being tested in the latest version of the Play Store.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re reading an <a href=\"https:\/\/andauth.co\/AuthorityInsights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Authority Insights<\/a> story. Authority Insights brings you all the latest exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage from the Android Authority team that you won\u2019t find anywhere else.<\/p>\n<p>Google now appears to be testing a few more changes in the Play Store. These include a new option called Play Labs, which presumably lets users try out new features, just like Labs across other Google products, including Search.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"e_3g\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"Play Store new features watermarked\"  alt=\"Play Store new features watermarked\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Play-Store-new-features-watermarked-scaled.jpg\"\/><img class=\"e_3g\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"Play Store Labs thrid party error watermarked\"  alt=\"Play Store Labs thrid party error watermarked\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Play-Store-Labs-thrid-party-error-watermarked-scaled.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>In addition to Play Labs, we\u2019ve also discovered an option for third-party app stores.\u00a0This appears to be a consequence of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/epic-google-play-store-settlement-withdrawn-3687649\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">now-withdrawn settlement between Google and Epic Games<\/a>, which brings the previous antitrust judgment against Google from 2024 back into force.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, when Google shared the update, it also confirmed the option to install new app stores directly from the Play Store is also coming.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, the feature is currently being tested and not available widely. We were able to activate the option by tinkering with the latest version of the Play Store. However, both the Play Labs and third-party app store options don\u2019t work for us at the moment, despite appearing in the overflow menu after tweaking the app.<\/p>\n<p>What does work for us is the new Search bar, which Google announced was getting refreshed to accommodate longer, natural language queries. This is facilitated by a new two-row search bar that Google said comes with the new update.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"e_3g\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"Play Store older search 2 watermarked\"  alt=\"Play Store older search 2 watermarked\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Play-Store-older-search-2-watermarked.jpg\"\/>Old UI<img class=\"e_3g\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"Play Store new search 3 watermarked\"  alt=\"Play Store new search 3 watermarked\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Play-Store-new-search-3-watermarked-scaled.jpg\"\/>Upcoming UI<img class=\"e_3g\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"Play Store older search watermarked\"  alt=\"Play Store older search watermarked\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Play-Store-older-search-watermarked.jpg\"\/>Old UI<img class=\"e_3g\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"Play Store new search watermarked\"  alt=\"Play Store new search watermarked\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Play-Store-new-search-watermarked-scaled.jpg\"\/>New Search with Ask Play prompt<\/p>\n<p>Along with that, we also see a prompt for \u201cAsk Store.\u201d Since the upgraded search bar has already been promised, we expect the wider release to happen gradually in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u26a0\ufe0f An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"C. Scott Brown \/ Android Authority TL;DR Google is testing new features in the Play Store, including support&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[5497,49,48,192,194,190,61],"class_list":["post-818705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-authority-insights","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-google","tag-google-play-store","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}