Google has begun accepting applications for its Registered App Stores program on Android, giving third-party app marketplaces outside the United States a path to preferential treatment on the platform. The company announced that eligible stores can now apply, with support set to reach some Android devices later this year.
Stores accepted into the program will gain access to features that have so far been associated with Google's own Play Store. Users of approved stores will be able to install apps with a single click, and those stores will be allowed to update apps silently in the background.
A Google spokesperson described the aim of the effort. "In March, we announced the Registered App Stores program to give third-party app stores a more streamlined way to reach users while maintaining the safety and security of the Android ecosystem," the spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that eligible stores outside the US can now apply to register ahead of the new simplified installation experience arriving for users later this year.
The program arrives as Google manages a more complicated app ecosystem following its loss in the Epic Games antitrust case. In the United States, users can reach app stores through Google Play because a court ordered it. Elsewhere, the company's voluntary program will serve as the route for rival stores.
Registered App Stores began as something of a backup plan. After Google lost its appeal of Judge James Donato's verdict, it faced a series of remedies, including allowing third-party billing and sharing its app catalog with rival stores. The most dramatic of these was the requirement that Google distribute third-party stores inside Google Play itself.
Google and Epic, having patched things up after the trial, tried to settle the case on terms that would have given Google more control. Under that proposal, Registered App Stores would have replaced the hosting of rival stores in Google Play, as long as those stores met a baseline standard of trust and safety. Google planned to use the program both in the US and internationally.
That plan changed when the two companies withdrew the settlement after the court signaled it would not approve it. As a result, the program is being launched only outside the US, while American users continue to access third-party stores through Google Play under the court's order.
