{"id":246812,"date":"2026-07-15T16:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ushopwell.com\/ublog\/third-party-app-stores-coming-to-google-play-next-week-as-epic-settlement-withdrawn\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T16:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T16:55:12","slug":"third-party-app-stores-coming-to-google-play-next-week-as-epic-settlement-withdrawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ushopwell.com\/ublog\/third-party-app-stores-coming-to-google-play-next-week-as-epic-settlement-withdrawn\/","title":{"rendered":"Third-party app stores coming to Google Play next week as Epic settlement withdrawn"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Big changes are coming to Android apps, but they&#8217;re not the changes Google wanted. The <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2026\/03\/google-and-epic-look-to-bury-the-hatchet-with-new-app-store-settlement\/\">settlement between Google and Epic<\/a> that aimed to put to rest the companies&#8217; long-running antitrust battle is being withdrawn, and that means third-party app stores are coming to the Play Store. Google has confirmed that it will begin distributing rival app stores next week, setting the stage for competing platforms to take a bite out of Google&#8217;s Android revenue stream.<\/p>\n<p>This case has the potential to upend software distribution on Android, and it&#8217;s all because of V-Bucks. In 2020, Epic Games was frustrated that it had to pay a 30 percent cut to Apple and Google every time someone bought a bundle of V-Bucks in a mobile version of <em>Fortnite<\/em>. The publisher added a direct purchase option to the game in violation of both Apple&#8217;s and Google&#8217;s rules. Naturally, <em>Fortnite <\/em>was pulled from the App Store and Google Play, kicking off the <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2020\/08\/epic-gives-fortnite-players-discounts-for-skirting-apple-google-fees\/\">antitrust lawsuit<\/a> that is only now reaching its conclusion.<\/p>\n<p>While Apple suffered little penalty in its Epic case, Google was <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2025\/07\/google-loses-app-store-antitrust-appeal-must-make-sweeping-changes-to-play-store\/\">tripped up<\/a> by its anti-competitive management of the supposedly open Android ecosystem. Google used its market position to discourage device makers from promoting or pre-loading non-Google app stores and attempted to hide that conduct. The remedies set by Judge James Donato included <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/google\/2026\/06\/google-starts-lowering-play-store-fees-making-good-on-epic-games-settlement\/\">lower fees<\/a>, mirroring Google Play apps in other stores, and most vitally, placement of alternative app stores in Google Play.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2026\/07\/third-party-app-stores-coming-to-google-play-next-week-as-epic-settlement-withdrawn\/\">Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2026\/07\/third-party-app-stores-coming-to-google-play-next-week-as-epic-settlement-withdrawn\/#comments\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wpematico_credit\"><small>Powered by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wpematico.com\" target=\"_blank\">WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Big changes are coming to Android apps, but they&#8217;re not the changes Google wanted. The settlement between Google and Epic that aimed to put to rest the companies&#8217; long-running antitrust battle is being withdrawn, and that means third-party app stores are coming to the Play Store. Google has confirmed that it will begin distributing rival app stores next week, setting the stage for competing platforms to take a bite out&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[241],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Third-party app stores coming to Google Play next week as Epic settlement withdrawn - UshopWell.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ushopwell.com\/ublog\/third-party-app-stores-coming-to-google-play-next-week-as-epic-settlement-withdrawn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Third-party app stores coming to Google Play next week as Epic settlement withdrawn - UshopWell.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Big changes are coming to Android apps, but they&#8217;re not the changes Google wanted. The settlement between Google and Epic that aimed to put to rest the companies&#8217; long-running antitrust battle is being withdrawn, and that means third-party app stores are coming to the Play Store. 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