Overview
- In a Thursday hearing, US District Judge James Donato found Google had added unnecessary “anticompetitive friction” and ordered immediate changes to how rival app stores appear and install in Google Play.
- The judge instructed Google to replace the Play Store’s two‑step 'View' flow with a direct 'Install' button, remove the 'are you looking for' warning page, and change search handling so approximate or partial queries surface third‑party stores.
- Aptoide Games became the first third‑party app store to appear in Google Play earlier this week, and the court treated that listing as the practical test of the remedy.
- Epic Games demonstrated in court that common queries such as 'app store' or 'aptoide' did not reliably surface third‑party stores, and the judge cited that demo when demanding faster, clearer discovery rules; Epic and Google remain adversaries in the case despite a separate commercial deal.
- The one‑week deadline and precise, judge‑ordered fixes signal tight judicial oversight of the remedy and could shape whether large companies and developers choose to launch alternative Android stores and how Google balances user safety with equal treatment.