Google opened applications for its Registered App Stores program, which will let approved third-party Android stores outside the US and Europe install apps in one tap and update them in the background, the way Google Play does, starting December 1. Each store pays $10,000 a year up front, before Google reviews it, and has to hand over its own APK and keep feeding Google its full app catalog for malware scanning. The features will only work on phones running the newest Android 17 builds, which reach Pixel devices in the coming weeks. Google originally offered the program in its antitrust settlement with Epic Games, but the two dropped that deal when the court seemed unlikely to approve it, so US users get rival stores through Google Play under the judge’s order instead.
