Google is lowering its Android app store fees in the US, UK, and EU to 20% or less, down from 30%, by June 30th, as well as making other major changes to its app store policies following a jointly proposed settlement with Epic Games this past November. While the settlement is still pending approval by the courts, Google has decided to go ahead with the changes.
Here's what's changing:
- Google is launching a “Registered App Stores” program outside of the US so that users can download and install third-party app stores, like the Epic Games Store, from the web without any headache. Google will not charge developers ongoing fees on purchases made through those stores, only a one-time registration fee of a few hundred dollars.
- Within the US, a court had previously ordered Google to adopt a store-within-a-store model, requiring the company to carry rival app stores within its own Play Store. Google is currently asking the judge to let it substitute its Registered App Stores program instead, but that remains to be determined.
- App developers will now be able to offer their own billing systems alongside Google Play's billing for in-app purchases, which in practice means that Google is separating its billing fees from its service fees in calculations.
- Under the new structure, Google will keep 25% when you pay for content inside an app you've already purchased, while charging $2-4 or 20% if you follow a link to download or buy the content elsewhere.
- To accommodate these changes to its billing structure, Google will be mandating APIs outside the US so that it can get its cut when you click out to an app developer's website and pay for the purchase there.
Great changes I guess, but also still a stinky, steaming pile of bullshit.
Can you imagine if Microsoft dictated what software we can or cannot install on our Windows devices? Or if they charged software developers a 30% (or 20% or 5% or whatever amount) fee on purchases made within that software?
How is it that Google and Apple can get away with such blatantly anticompetitive practices within their app marketplaces?
The mobile operating ecosystem is in desperate need of a 3rd major player that bypasses these greedy, competition-stomping gatekeepers — and frankly, Samsung should be the one to build it. But that's a topic for a different day.
Wait, there's more! And it's not so epic…
As part of the settlement, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who has historically been one of the most vocal critics of Google's app store practices, has agreed to not only stop criticizing the company's app distribution policies and fees, but to actively advocate that Google and Android are “procompetitive and a model for app store operations.”
The term sheet also restricts Sweeney from pushing for further changes to Google's app store policies, requires him to make good faith public statements supportive of the deal, and may obligate him to defend the agreement in courts around the world. The restrictions are tied to Google's timeline for implementing fee changes, which are expected to be complete by September 2027 at the latest, meaning Sweeney may not be free to criticize Google's app store until September 2032.
