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Alternative app store AltStore raises $6M, connects with the fediverse | TechCrunch
(techcrunch.com)
Venture capital backed which means it will inevitably go to shit
this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
195 points (98.5% liked)
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I would prefer if they were not based in the US, both for jurisdiction reasons and cultural reasons (no offense to sane Americans).
No offense taken, we suck
Is your country taking American Refugees yet?
no offense to sane Americans
I don't think any reasonable american would take offense. I would prefer it wasn't either.
There's only one type to take offense to that. We were embarrassing before this and we'll be sure to embarrass ourselves in the future. It's the American way.
How does this even matter if phone manufacturers block apps that aren't approved by them? Forgive my ignorance, never done much mobile dev stuff
I suppose you can enforce additional politics into your store. Like forcing all apps being open source (like f-droid).
But everything will keep to be apple/google approved, at least until linux phone becomes more mainstream.
Until then I'm moving away from native app development, and focusing more on webapps and progressive apps.
Yeah it really sucks. I was in the middle of developing an Android game and now I don't really want to. Luckily I'm working with Unreal so I can just build it for desktop distribution anyways. But still, ugh.
even being Apple-notarized (what you mean by "approved") doesn't mean it'll be in the Apple App Store
This article vaguely hints but doesn't actually say anywhere that this is for iOS apps
Interesting news, but I'll just stick with F-Droid.
AltStore is for iOS.
Edit: And hopefully F-Droid will be able to continue as an option, considering the new requirements Google is putting into place.
This is awesome but AltStore has been seriously missing several important features for years - most notably, PRs have been submitted to add support for organization dev accounts (as opposed to individual accounts), and they never get merged. In general, I haven’t seen AltStore get a meaningful update in well over a year or two.
There’s enough missing that has been in dire need of adding that it got forked into SideStore, which has that feature and tons of other missing ones, including the ability to sign apps on device which is hella convenient.
confusingly the article leaves out what normal altstore does: install any iOS app provided its file and a connection to a computer (while installing) for seven days
Or if you live in the EU you can just install the "PAL" version which works without a PC connection.
Now, alongside the additional funding, AltStore is launching its own Mastodon server, running on the ActivityPub protocol, where users will be able to view app updates and new information from the sources they follow. Developers can opt in to have their app updates published to the new server.
Strange new feature but im happy for testut. Riley is the reason I could play games on my iPhone back in 2015.
No "store" needed for FOSS.