Almost a month after Apple’s begrudging capitulation to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), only one third-party iOS app store is currently live in Europ

A first look at Europe’s alternative iPhone app stores

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2024-04-03 08:00:07

Almost a month after Apple’s begrudging capitulation to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), only one third-party iOS app store is currently live in Europe. It’s the B2B-focused Mobivention 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’ll really pique the interest of Verge readers.

Both the Epic Games Store and MacPaw’s Setapp have been announced, but it’s AltStore that’s likely to hit EU users’ phones first. This new app marketplace from developer Riley Testut is a version of AltStore, an App Store alternative that launched in 2019 that doesn’t require users to jailbreak their devices. The primary drive for its creation was Delta, a 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. Thankfully, we’ve already had a chance to preview the marketplace and spend some time kicking its tires.