Google Faces Deadline to Fix Third-Party App Store Process

Google's decision to support third-party app stores has hit a snag in court. Judge James Donato, who oversaw Google's antitrust case with Epic, believes the company introduced unnecessary 'anticompetitive friction' to the download process. The judge ordered Google to make changes within a week.

The issue lies in how Google presents third-party app stores in search results and the current process for installing them from the Play Store. During a court hearing, Epic's lawyers demonstrated that entering the search term 'store for apps' yielded no results for app stores, only physical stores like Walmart. Even when users found third-party app stores, they were not displayed prominently but instead buried under a banner.

Google's decision to replace the normal 'Install' button with a 'View' button on Aptoide, the only third-party app store on the Play Store, was also criticized. Judge Donato suggested that this extra step discouraged users from downloading alternative stores.