Installing a third-party Android app store such as Aptoide Games<\/a> hasn\u2019t been a smooth process. For example, if you go to the Play Store on an Android phone and search for \u201cAptoide,\u201d you\u2019ll see a pop-up section at the top that asks, \u201cLooking for Aptoide Games?\u201d You then have to click on a \u201cGo to page\u201d link. On that next page, it shows the Aptoide Games app, but instead of an Install button, there is a View button. Selecting the View button finally takes you to the Install link.<\/p>\n Also, if you search for \u201capp stores\u201d in the Play Store, a pop-up appears with the question, \u201cLooking for app stores?\u201d with a Go to page link that takes you to the app stores menu.<\/p>\n Northern District Judge James Donato was not thrilled when Epic Games attorneys illustrated all of this in court, The Verge reports<\/a>. He called those extra steps \u201canticompetitive friction\u201d and \u201cnot acceptable\u201d and ordered Google to remove them from the installation process by next week. In his ruling<\/a>, Donato said that if someone searches \u201capp stores\u201d or \u201cstore for apps\u201d \u2014 or any similar combination of search terms \u2014 the Play Store must show a list of such stores.<\/p>\n He also ruled that Google must replace the \u201cview\u201d button with \u201cinstall\u201d on the screen that shows the third-party app and that Google must remove the \u201cLooking for an app store?\u201d screen and instead must show the list of app stores.<\/p>\n Jason Howell, co-host of the Android Faithful podcast<\/a>, said replacing the View button with an Install button was puzzling, since most apps in the Play Store search results don\u2019t show it either, not until you click on the app itself. \u201cIt seems Google was likely replicating how it presents its normal apps in listings for third-party app stores, not immediately doing anything punitive,\u201d Howell told CNET.<\/p>\n Howell did say it was \u201cconcerning\u201d that consumers were being directed to a separate page of third-party app stores. \u201cI\u2019m happy to know they will address that.\u201d<\/p>\n Google customers have been able to install third-party app stores on Android phones throughout the operating system\u2019s 18-year history. But prior to July, you could not install those apps from the Play Store. Instead, you had to use the more cumbersome method of sideloading, in which you install the app from an unofficial source or computer. It often required changing the security settings on the phone.<\/p>\n That changed in July, when Donato ruled<\/a> that Google must allow people to download third-party apps in the Play Store.<\/p>\n But Google added speed bumps to that process, Epic Games complained to the court<\/a> last month. Its lawyers argued that \u201cGoogle will not include any app stores in the results,\u201d and instead will direct them to a separate page showing a list of app stores. The lawyers argued that \u201cwill confuse users and will make app stores harder to find and less likely to be used\u201d and that they \u201cwill just give up\u201d if they don\u2019t see those stores on the initial search results page.<\/p>\n Representatives for Google and Epic Games did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEver since being admittedly fascinated by the Cambridge coffee webcam from the 1990s, I’ve written about VPNs, the NFL, smartphones, living wages, over\/unders and everything in between.![\"Screenshots](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/aptoide-games_screens_new.jpg\")
The multistep process required to install a third-party app store on an Android phone.CNET\/Adobe Stock\/Google<\/p>\n![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/372fc674-ce80-4610-b50a-72bbcc5cdd51.png\")
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSee full bio\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal judge in California ruled this week that Google must stop making it difficult for consumers to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":["post-593391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}