Bid farewell to Google Play. You may install and update apps from any safe online shop using this app.
For the past 20 years, apps have transformed mobile phones into mini computers. The success of WhatsApp and similar platforms can be attributed to app stores. Billions of people have installed these apps because of their ease of use.
Before iOS and Android, there were also app stores on platforms like Maemo, Meego, or Symbian, but installing and updating them was more complicated. However, one of the biggest differences between Android and iOS is the ease with which you can install apps from outside the official Android store.
Apple has allowed other app stores in the EU due to legislative commitment, but on Android it is possible to install APK directly, as we do on desktop platforms with an.exe file in Windows or a.dmg file in MacOS. Of course, installing these APK files involves risks.
We are not referring to the possibility that the file contains a virus or a trojan that could damage our devices or extract sensitive information. We mean that since it is not installed from the Google Play Store, we often forget that it needs to be updated, not only to get new functions but also to fix bugs in the applications.
This is where services like Obtainium come in, which allow you to install and update apps directly from their websites and alternative stores and even receive notifications when new versions are available. This way we can centralize the updates of all the apps that we haven’t installed from the Google Play Store. It’s a free, open-source app available on GitHub.
And yes, there are some well-known apps that for legal reasons are not present in the Google Play Store, as is the case with Huawei apps, which can be installed from a web browser. Obtanium allows you to automatically install and update apps from well-known repositories and stores.