In accordance with the requirements of the European DMA, it is now possible to use application stores competing with the App Store on iPhone. But the operation is complex, as we saw with AltStore, the first store of its kind.
Here we are: it is now possible for all European iPhone users to install applications on their precious one without going through the Apple App Store! A small revolution when we know Apple’s frenzied desire to want to control everything on its devices. But the Apple firm is obliged to comply with the rules of Digital Markets Act, this European regulation came into force on March 6 and which aims to better regulate the digital giants (read our article). Among the new obligations, there was therefore the possibility given to alternative application stores to offer a software catalog and payment methods different from the App Store, until then a mandatory step.
AltStore is therefore the first to unveil its alternative marketplace, this is the established term. We might as well say it right away, the catalog is very limited – there are currently only two applications available! – and the installation is not the simplest. No wonder this, as Apple seems to have done everything to make life difficult for its competitors, while respecting the rules of the DMA. This means in particular that the conditions to be met to open a competing store are drastic: for example, you must be a recognized developer on the Apple platform for at least two years and agree to pay a tax of 0.5 euros per application installed by its users beyond the first million installations (this is the Core Technology Fee or CTF). That said, the European Commission has launched an investigation on the subject (read our article) to determine whether the rules imposed by Apple might not be a little too restrictive.
Alternative App Store: a real obstacle course
In practice, installing an app from an alternative App Store is currently reserved for the most curious and stubborn users. We could almost call it an obstacle course! The first step is to retrieve the alternative marketplace from which we can then install an application. Here’s how it works for the AltStore (and that’s a summary!):
- From an iPhone equipped with iOS 17.4 at least, you go to the site altstore.iocurrently only available in English
- Once the button is pressed Get AltStore, you must agree to pay a subscription of 1.5 euros per year. This is the way AltStore found to finance the Core Technology Fee mentioned above.
- We note, not without irony, that you can pay for this subscription with… Apple Pay!
- Once payment is made, you can click on the button Download which will allow you to download and install the AltStore marketplace on your iPhone.
- Except that we first get a message indicating that it is impossible because you have to go to the Settings to formally authorize the installation of another App Store. This is the principle imposed by Apple to ensure that each user does so knowingly. The logic is clear: Apple wants to both protect the user against online scams and also protect itself. Because if you have chosen to go through an alternative marketplace, Apple is no longer responsible in the event of a problem linked to an application that does not go through it.
- There are six different screens to go through to authorize the installation of the marketplace!
- Once this is done, you can now press the new icon that appears on your home screen to access the marketplace catalog, here AltStore.
- Each alternative marketplace will then offer its own catalog and its own payment methods. Here, for example, the AltStore offers a free application (Delta, a Nintendo game console emulator) and Clips!, a clipboard manager for which the developer asks to commit to a monthly subscription of which the user determines the amount itself. An innovative payment method that the Apple App Store does not offer.
Given the complexity of the procedure described above, one might reasonably ask “What’s the point?” The main reason for the existence of alternative marketplaces is to be able to offer applications banned by Apple on its own App Store. And this is the case for example of the Clips application, which can be found on AltStore and which allows for example to cut or copy several elements at once, text or images, for example, before pasting them into another app. Unable to find such an app on the official Apple App Store. And there is a good chance that other alternative marketplaces will soon offer adult applications (pornography and gambling in particular), also banned by Apple in its store. Either way, the breach is open!