First look at European alternative iPhone app stores

Almost a month after Apple’s reluctant capitulation to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), only one third-party iOS app store is currently operating in Europe. It is Mobivention’s B2B-focused marketplace that allows companies to distribute their own apps internally. While that’s fine and all, things won’t stay this way for long — and it’s what’s coming soon that will pique interest Verge readers.

Both the Epic Games Store and MacPaw’s Setapp have been announced, but it’s the AltStore that’s likely to appear on EU users’ phones first. This 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 primary driver behind its creation was Delta, the Nintendo emulator that Testut and his business partner Shane Gill are now bringing to the iPhone through their European app marketplace.

Currently, the new version of AltStore is deep in Apple’s approval process and will be ready to go live once it gets the thumbs up from the company. Fortunately, we’ve already had a chance to see the market and spend some time squirming it.

One of the reasons we haven’t seen more app stores launch at this point is partly because Apple has made it too expensive. For example, the Core Technology Fee (CTF) requires developers to pay Apple 50 euro cents for each annual app install over 1 million, but Third-party app store developers must pay CTF for each the first annual installation of their app market. In other words, each download of AltStore and Mobivention costs their developers 50 eurocents — a fee that could quickly become unsustainable. The current AltStore has been downloaded over a million times, for example.

There is no best practice guide for managing this, but Mobivention has passed the CTF fees on to its customers through membership packages. At the time of writing, AltStore has not announced how it plans to address this.

Such fees aren’t financially devastating to users, but they could be enough of a deterrent to stop the curious from exploring alternative app stores — especially if people aren’t quite sure what they’ll find there. After all, no one likes to pay for services they may not use.

Another potential barrier to widespread adoption of third-party marketplaces is how inconvenient they are, with each store requiring about a dozen screen interactions to install.

It goes like this: You start by clicking a link in your browser to load an alternative store. From there, you’ll get a popup informing you that your installation settings don’t allow that developer’s marketplaces. Then you go to Settings, enable the marketplace, go back to your 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 difficult procedure to follow, but there are enough steps and intimidating language to be irritating and act as a deterrent — especially when Apple’s App Store requires just one click to launch. It’s hard to see this as anything other than the company’s attempt to sap people’s energy and discourage them from continuing, especially given Apple’s historical prowess in designing user experiences.

Fortunately, it’s easier to install the third-party apps themselves. On both Mobivention and AltStore, it’s actually the same process as the App Store: you click the button that says “install” and… it installs. At least at first glance.

While this method works for AltStore’s bundled apps — Delta and Clip — using third-party software requires a slightly different approach. AltStore allows you to add “sources”, which are URLs shared by developers that contain JSON files containing application metadata. Once these sources are added, the apps they point to can be downloaded from the AltStore. It’s little Beginning-esque: stores within stores.

Clearly, this decentralized approach is different from Apple’s all-inclusive App Store and could further turn off the general public. For most people, it’s a bit complicated. Having said that, I bet many enthusiasts are rubbing their hands with glee at this unfettered approach to app distribution.

These sources won’t be available at release, but Testut says this is a “post-launch priority,” and a list of recommended app download partner sources will be selected soon.

Since I didn’t try source during testing, I had to focus on the two apps available at startup: Delta and Clip. And that’s where things get especially exciting, because Delta is especially awesome.

Delta is primarily a Nintendo emulator that focuses on the NES, SNES, N64, and pre-Switch handhelds. I didn’t expect a free app to impress me, but it honestly blew me away. Playing classic games on my iPhone is something I didn’t even know I was missing.

Actually using Delta was easy. You can upload ROMs via iCloud Drive or from your phone’s Download folder, and performance while playing various titles was excellent. I will say that the controls were awkward on the touchscreen, but connecting an external controller made things a lot easier — even if I did have a few issues accessing Delta’s menu afterwards.

All in all, though, as someone who grew up with these games, finally playing them on the iPhone feels nothing short of magical.

Clip is another app that I enjoyed using. This clipboard manager requires a minimum Patreon support of $1 per month (plus tax) to download. You can cancel this monthly support at any time and continue to use Clip, but will not receive any updates.

As for the app itself, the version of Clip I tried differs from similar software offered on Apple’s App Store in that it runs constantly in the background. Typically, clipboard managers on iOS must use different solutions to achieve comparable functionality. For example, Paste requires you to open the app every time you want to add something you copied to the clipboard.

By comparison, this is where Clip succeeds. When you copy something, you’re immediately notified and can swipe down to save it to the clipboard. That means you have the option to add it if it’s something useful — like an address — or dismiss the notification if it’s something you don’t want recorded, like a password. I find saving your copied items like this in a centralized location incredibly useful because it makes sharing and reusing these clips painless.

The clip works well and it’s a tool I can see myself using, but it raises some flags. There’s a reason why Apple doesn’t allow fully functional clipboard managers on the App Store, though. On the security side, there’s a potential danger in letting an app snoop on everything you copy and paste — especially if a bad actor manages to access your data storage.

When I raised this concern with Testut, he told me that Clip uses “standard iOS security (eg sandboxing)” and that everything is stored in a SQLite database, something that other apps cannot access, “unless your device jailbroken. “

Nevertheless, these types of apps have raised concerns about the use of third-party marketplaces — especially by companies like Apple. It claims DMA reduces its ability to “detect, prevent, and take action against malicious apps on iOS and to support users affected by issues with apps downloaded outside the App Store.”

There’s some truth to that, but it’s not quite so binary. Apple still has to perform a basic review and verify all apps in third-party app stores to “ensure [they] are free of known malware, viruses or other security threats, work as promised and do not expose users to outrageous fraud.” According to the DMA, Apple is also allowed to take “necessary and proportionate” steps to protect users and mitigate any security issues.

For example, after I tested Clip, Testut had to tweak the app’s background monitoring feature to get it notarized by Apple. The first version I tried used the user’s location to keep it active, but Apple rejected it. Testut then updated Clip with the Map feature — so there’s a reason for the app to stay active in the background — to get approval.

This back-and-forth makes it clear that third-party marketplaces aren’t quite the Wild West some have feared.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t dangers associated with working outside of Apple’s walled garden, though. Clip might protect your data, but what about the next app you decide to try? AltStore’s sparsely filled app privacy sections do little to alleviate this concern, especially when compared to the App Store. Being less secure doesn’t automatically mean your identity or data will be stolen, but additional transparency around data collection, permissions and privacy would certainly be welcome.

Arguably, the biggest obstacle to the general public’s adoption of third-party marketplaces will be leaving the comforting embrace of 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 rest assured that Apple has it under control in the App Store.

Third-party app stores introduce an element of suspicion. What happens if you’re outside the EU for more than a month and the apps you depend on stop getting updates? Or want a refund for faulty software? Or is the app cheating you?

In the case of AltStore, Testut says that since all marketplace payments are made through Patreon’s pledges, Patreon will handle any disputes as it does with the existing AltStore. Other app markets will take different approaches. With Apple you always know where you stand.

While AltStore and Mobivention aren’t well-known enough to inspire trust the way Apple does, other big hitters might. Both the aforementioned Epic Games Store and Setapp are on the horizon, and their higher profiles could convince people of their ability to mitigate damage and moderate disputes. The normalization of app downloads outside of the App Store will also get a boost after spring when Apple enables web distribution for major developers.

Of course, in order for the public to get used to alternative markets, consumer-oriented ones must first be launched. While AltStore may be close to launch, the approval process has been slow and time-consuming, keeping the March launch off target.

Essentially, in their current state, third-party iOS app stores like AltStore will only appeal to power users, groups of enthusiasts who are desperate to solve niche problems, or have a special interest in something they can’t get on the App Store, such as is a fully functional clipboard manager or game emulator.

And Apple? He’s probably pretty happy with this. The fewer things that get in the way of its grand old moneymaker, the better – even if its approach to DMA compliance makes the company fruit for hungry EU regulators.