Nearly a month after Apple reluctantly gave in to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), only one third-party iOS app store is now live in Europe. This is a B2B-focused Mobivention marketplace that allows companies to distribute their own applications internally.While that’s great, things don’t last long – and it’s what’s about to happen that really piques interest edge reader.
Setapps for the Epic Games Store and MacPaw have both been released, but AltStore will likely be coming to EU users’ phones first. The new app market from developer Riley Testut is a version of AltStore, an App Store alternative launched in 2019 that doesn’t require users to jailbreak their devices. The main impetus for its creation was Delta, a Nintendo emulator that Testut and his business partner Shane Gill are now bringing to the iPhone through their European App Market.
Currently, the new version of AltStore is going through Apple’s approval process and will be available once it is approved by Apple. Thankfully, we’ve had the chance to preview the market and spend some time trying it out.
We haven’t seen more app store launches yet, partly because Apple’s costs are so high.For example, its Core Technology Fee (CTF) requires developers to pay Apple 50 euro cents per year for apps installed. More than 1 million, but Developers of third-party app stores must pay CTF Every First annual install of their app marketplace. In other words, each download of AltStore and Mobivention costs developers 50 euro cents – a cost that quickly becomes unsustainable. For example, the current AltStore has been downloaded over one million times.
There are currently no best practice guidelines for managing this issue, but Mobivention has passed on CTF fees to its customers through membership packages. As of this writing, AltStore has not announced how it plans to handle this issue.
Such fees are not a financial hit to users, but they may be enough to deter those even remotely curious from exploring alternative app stores – especially if people aren’t sure what they’ll find there. After all, no one wants to pay for a service they may not use.
Install App Market
Another potential barrier to widespread adoption of third-party marketplaces is its complexity, with each store requiring about a dozen screen interactions to be installed.
It works like this: You first click on a browser-based link to load the alternative store. From there, you’ll receive a pop-up informing you that your installation settings don’t allow that developer’s marketplace. You then go into Settings, enable the market, return to the browser, click the download link again, and get another prompt asking you to confirm the installation. Finally, you can open the store and browse the available apps.
It’s not a tricky procedure, but there are enough steps and scary language to make it annoying and a deterrent—especially when Apple’s App Store only requires one click to get started. It’s hard to see this as any other attempt by the company to drain people of their energy and prevent them from continuing to work, especially given Apple’s historic prowess in designing user experiences.
Thankfully, installing third-party apps itself is easier. On Mobivention and AltStore, it’s essentially the same process as the App Store: you click a button that says “Install” and then… it installs. At least on first inspection.
While this method works for AltStore’s bundled applications (Delta and Clip), using software from other providers requires a slightly different approach. AltStore allows you to add “feeds”, which are URLs shared by developers that contain JSON files that hold application metadata. After these sources are added, the applications they point to can be downloaded from the AltStore.A bit Inception-esque: shop within shop.
Clearly, this decentralized approach, unlike Apple’s all-encompassing App Store, may further intimidate the public. A bit complicated for most people. Having said that, I bet a lot of enthusiasts will be happy with this unrestricted method of app distribution.
These sources won’t be available at launch, but Testut says this is a “post-launch priority” and a curated list of recommended source partners will be available for downloading the app soon.
Since I didn’t try the sources during my testing, this left me focusing on the two apps available at launch: Delta and Clip. This is where things get particularly exciting, because Delta Air Lines is particularly good.
Are these apps worth all the pain?
Delta is primarily a Nintendo emulator, focusing on handheld devices prior to the NES, SNES, N64, and Switch. I didn’t expect to be impressed by this free app, but it sure did. I didn’t even know I was missing out on playing classic games on my iPhone.
Using Delta is actually a breeze. You can upload the ROM via iCloud Drive or from your phone’s Downloads folder, and the performance when playing a variety of games is excellent. I will say that the controls on the touchscreen are awkward, but connecting an external controller made things much easier—even if I later had some issues accessing Delta’s menus.
But all in all, as someone who grew up with these games, finally being able to play them on an iPhone feels nothing short of magical.
Clip is another app I love using. This clipboard manager requires a minimum monthly Patreon commitment of $1 (tax included) to download. You can cancel this monthly commitment at any time and continue using Clip, but it will not receive any updates.
As for the app itself, the version of Clip I tried differed from similar software available on the Apple App Store in that it was constantly running in the background. Typically, clipboard managers on iOS have to use various workarounds to achieve similar functionality. For example, every time you want to add something copied to the clipboard to Paste, you need to open the app.
In contrast, this is where Clip thrives. When you copy something, you’ll be notified immediately and can swipe down to save it to your clipboard. This means you can choose to add it if it’s something useful (like an address), or ignore the notification if it’s something you don’t want recorded (like a password). I find it very useful to save copied projects like this to a centralized location, as it makes it easy to share and reuse the pieces.
Clip works great and is a tool I use myself, but it does raise some red flags. There’s a reason why Apple doesn’t allow a full-featured clipboard manager on the App Store. From a security perspective, allowing apps to snoop on everything you copy and paste is potentially dangerous – especially if bad actors manage to access your data storage.
When I asked Testut about this, he told me that Clip uses “standard iOS security (e.g. sandboxing)” and that everything is stored in a SQLite database that cannot be accessed by other apps, “unless your device has prison Break.” “
Caveat emptor
However, it’s these types of apps that raise concerns about using third-party marketplaces – especially from companies like Apple. It claims that the DMA is limiting its ability to “detect, prevent and take action against malicious apps on iOS and provide support to users affected by issues with apps downloaded from outside the App Store.”
There is some truth to this, but it’s not that binary.Apple will still need to conduct baseline reviews and notarize all apps on third-party app stores to “ensure [they] Has no known malware, viruses or other security threats, works as promised, and doesn’t expose users to serious fraud. According to the DMA, Apple can also take “necessary and appropriate” steps to protect users and mitigate any security concerns.
For example, after I tested the Clip, Testut had to adjust the app’s background monitoring capabilities so that Apple would notarize it. The first version I tried used the user’s location to stay active, but was rejected by Apple. Testut then updated Clip’s mapping functionality – so the app had a reason to stay active in the background – to get approval.
This back-and-forth makes it clear that the third-party market isn’t quite the Wild West that some fear it is.
But that’s not to say there aren’t dangers in operating outside Apple’s walled garden. Clip may protect your data, but what about the next app you decide to try? The sparse app privacy section on the AltStore doesn’t help alleviate this concern, especially compared to the App Store. Less security doesn’t mean your identity or data can be stolen, but some additional transparency around data collection, permissions, and privacy would certainly be welcome.
The biggest barrier to public adoption of third-party marketplaces may well be the comfort of leaving the App Store. People have been downloading apps from Apple since 2008. Whether it’s security, user privacy, app updates, fraud protection or refunds, you can be sure that Apple has everything under control on the App Store.
Third-party app stores introduce a point of doubt. What happens if you leave the EU for more than a month and the apps you rely on stop getting updates? Or do you want a refund for defective software? Or maybe an app tricked you?
In the case of AltStore, Testut said that since all marketplace payments are made through Patreon pledges, Patreon will handle any disputes as it does with existing AltStores. Other app markets will take a different approach. With Apple, you always know where you stand.
While AltStore and Mobivention aren’t well-known enough to inspire the same confidence as Apple, other big companies may do the same. The aforementioned Epic Games Store and Setapp marketplaces are both on the horizon, and their high visibility could lead to confidence in their ability to mitigate harm and defuse disputes. Standardization of app downloads outside of the App Store will also get a boost after the spring, when Apple offers web distribution to large developers.
Of course, in order for the public to get used to alternative markets, consumer-focused markets need to be introduced first. While AltStore may be launching soon, the approval process has been slow and lengthy, causing the launch to miss its March goal.
Fundamentally, in its current state, a third-party iOS app store like the AltStore will only be of interest to power users, a group of enthusiasts eager to solve a niche problem, or those with a special interest in something they can’t get on the App Store. Enthusiast appeal, such as a full-featured clipboard manager or game emulator.
What about Apple? It’s probably very happy about it. The less that disrupts its old money-making machine, the better – even if its approach to DMA compliance makes the company low-hanging fruit for hungry EU regulators.