Small wins for alternative Android stores? Google reacted to the pushback to their new developer registration rules announced back in August 2025 and has decided to ease some of the constraints: > The company also announced that it is developing a "new advanced flow" for experienced users with a higher risk tolerance who wish to sideload unverified apps. This new system will provide warnings about the associated risks but will ultimately allow users to make their own choices. If this is the case, Zapstore will offer hand-holding via the UI to users running stock Android, in order for them to unblock their devices.

BleepingComputer

Google backpedals on new Android developer registration rules

Google is backpedaling on its decision to introduce new identity verification rules for all developers, stating that it will also introduce account...

On the other hand, Android 17's "Registered App Stores" feature (as part of a legal settlement with Epic Games) may give a chance to Zapstore and other alternative stores. It is unclear whether developer registration rules will also apply to apps distributed via this mechanism.

Android Authority

Here's a look at how Android 17 will make alternative app stores easier to use

To settle its lawsuit with Epic, Google will make alternative app stores easier to use in Android 17. Here's what that might look like.

Very basic feature for now but tied to versions, you can sign in with your browser extension and start leaving your opinions View quoted note →

Added comments to the website (soon in the new app!)

Designing the new "certificate mismatch" flow: GM!

Like @Zapstore for app distribution. Which would have no social layer if it wasn't for the twitter clones. View quoted note →

In the context of an open internet where anyone can (and should) publish anything, curation becomes critically important. Filters with criteria for surfacing signal and minimizing noise must exist for a sustainable user experience. While this can be done at a personal level, the flow of information can easily exceed our capacity and energy to filter. That is when we naturally delegate. Delegation is never a on/off switch: a continuum exists whereby we trade a little less agency for some convenience, all the way up to no sovereignty for complete convenience. It is my philosophical stance that we must retain agency over the degree of this tradeoff. It is called personal responsibility, which sadly has been eroded in large parts of the population. Apple through its App Store (and Google with its Store and newer shenanigans), even assuming good faith, want to establish by means of power that tradeoff for all of us. Regardless of our preferences, age, ethnicity, there is one fixed tradeoff at the extreme: mobile app curation for all* users worldwide is decided by a handful of people in California, incredibly arbitrary and vulnerable to corporate and political pressure. This is antithetical to the way we naturally delegate, which is bottom-up because of how trust scales, and it's insulting to our right to freedom and ownership, and to our duty of personal responsibility as grown up individuals of a civilization. Zapstore exists to make this right.

Apple: "For everything else there is always the open Internet. If the App Store model and guidelines or alternative distribution and Notarization for iOS and iPadOS apps are not best for your app or business idea that’s okay, we provide Safari for a great web experience too."

Any Android developers on Nostr that are not yet signing their apps on Zapstore? 👀

Improved app browsing and searching experience on Zapstore website! It now caches most events, shows zaps, and more.

Apps — Zapstore

Browse apps on Zapstore

Just found out. Apple removed the iTorrent app from an iOS alternative marketplace (EU) by revoking the developer notarization "in order to comply with government sanctions-related rules"

The Verge

Apple pulls iPhone torrent app from AltStore PAL in Europe

iTorrent’s developer has been blocked from distributing apps on alternative iOS stores.