Google Play rival app stores must become easier to find and install within a week after U.S. District Judge James Donato criticized Google’s current design as unnecessary “anticompetitive friction,” according to contemporaneous reports from Ars Technica and other outlets. The direction came during a compliance hearing in Epic Games v. Google, where the court is overseeing remedies from Epic’s 2023 antitrust win, rather than deciding a new claim of liability.
The immediate issue is mundane interface work with real consequences: Google has begun allowing alternative Android app stores inside Play, but the reported flow made them harder to discover and required extra taps before installation. Judge Donato told Google to fix the problems within one week. Ars Technica reported that Google’s lawyers agreed to make the changes, while Donato said the company should contact the court if it could not meet the deadline.
What must Google change for rival app stores in Google Play?
- Fix search: Queries intended to find an app store must surface the relevant category of results, including reasonably close wording variations. TechTimes and Mobile Marketing Reads reported that Epic attorney Yonatan Even demonstrated a search for “store for apps” that returned physical retailers, including Walmart, rather than alternative app marketplaces.
- Remove the search detour: Searches for terms such as “app store” or “Aptoide” reportedly led users to an “are you looking for” banner, which then linked to a separate page for third-party stores. Donato ordered that extra screen removed, according to Ars Technica and Mobile Marketing Reads.
- Put “Install” first: The third-party-store page used a “View” button that opened another dialog before users could choose “Install.” Donato said the button should instead offer installation directly, Ars Technica reported.
Google argued at the hearing that alternative stores warrant extra treatment because of their expanded or advanced permissions, according to the reports. Donato rejected the need for the search-stage gate, noting that the store landing page already carried a warning. The judge also said Google should handle every relevant search variation that is even roughly, in his words, 70 percent properly phrased.
Aptoide Games was the first, and at the time of the hearing the only, rival storefront described as available through Google Play. The remedy requires Google to distribute competing Android app stores through its own marketplace, a change ordered after a 2023 jury found Google’s Play Store practices anticompetitive in Epic’s case. CBS News reported at the time that the jury found Google’s app store protected by anticompetitive barriers that harmed consumers and developers.
For Android users, the order is narrow: it aims to remove obstacles from the route to a competing store, not to predict whether people will use one. Google had not completed the required changes at the time of the reports. Whether less buried search results and one fewer dialog alter the market remains unproven.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.
