Five years of litigation. One US Circuit Court ruling. A Supreme Court that wouldn’t listen to Google’s appeal. And now, in the US Android’s biggest marketplace, there’s exactly one alternative app store live. Not five. Not a dozen. One.
Google has started distributing third-party Android app stores through the Play Store in the US, the outcome of a legal fight Epic Games started back in 2020 and won at nearly every stage since. Starting 22 July, developer app listings — names, icons, descriptions, screenshots, videos — became available to any qualifying third-party US Android app store, whether the developer opted in or not. Downloads still route through Google Play, and Google’s service fee still applies. Only one alternative store is actually live right now.
What’s Happening & Why It Matters
How Google Got Here
Epic sued in 2020 over Google’s 30% cut on in-app purchases. A federal jury ruled Google Play an illegal monopoly in 2024. Google appealed. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied that appeal. Google tried the Supreme Court next. The Supreme Court denied that too, in 2025, closing off every remaining legal option.
What followed was a November 2025 settlement that forced Google’s hand on multiple fronts at once: allow third-party app stores, stop paying for Play Store exclusives, cap fees on new app installs, and permit third-party in-app billing that bypasses Google’s payment system entirely. Google’s cut on those alternative-billing transactions dropped to as low as 10%, down from 30%.
The Catch
Here’s the mechanism. Store operators who want in have to enrol in something called the Play Catalogue Access Program. Do that, and they get to use developers’ existing Play Store listings for their own catalogues, rather than building everything from scratch. Google still handles the actual download. Google still charges the fee. And running a qualifying store costs an annual $5,000 review fee on top of that.
The eligibility bar is real too. Stores have to target US users, register as legitimate organisations, run an actual authorisation process, treat developers fairly, and respect copyright. This isn’t sideloading with extra steps. It’s a formal marketplace-within-a-marketplace, with Google still sitting in the middle of every transaction.
One Store. That’s It for Now
Ars Technica’s framing cuts right to the practical reality: third-party app stores are technically rolling out, but there’s only one actually live inside Play right now. Developers were given the choice to opt out entirely, and Google will begin distributing listings automatically for anyone who didn’t. Most developers, evidently, haven’t opted out. Few third-party stores have actually shown up to claim that access yet.
That gap matters. A legal victory that took five years to win produces, on day one, almost nothing visible to an average Android user. The infrastructure exists. The competition doesn’t, not yet.
TF Summary: What’s Next
Google continues rolling out the Play Catalogue Access Program to qualifying US third-party stores. Developers can opt out of automatic listing sharing at any time through the Play Console. No confirmed timeline exists for additional major third-party stores — Epic’s own Android storefront among them — to launch inside this new framework formally. Google’s settlement terms remain in effect for three years from implementation.
MY FORECAST: Expect Epic to move fastest here, given how directly this entire framework traces back to Epic’s own lawsuit and how much reputational weight rides on Tim Sweeney actually launching a competitive storefront now that the legal path is clear. The bigger test is whether smaller developers see any real pricing benefit within the next year — a marketplace with one participant isn’t genuine competition; it’s a compliance checkbox. Watch for Google to quietly slow-walk additional store approvals through the $5,000 review and eligibility process, given the company’s five-year track record of resisting exactly this outcome at every legal turn available to it.
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