As a result of the agreement between Apple and the EU
Digital Markets Act (DMA), the third-party iOS app store marketplace AltStore
PAL is now live in the EU. The store has been developed by Riley Testut and Shane
Gill to accommodate apps that can be self-hosted by developers on their own
servers.
To install the app store, an annual subscription fee of €1.50
(plus tax) must be paid, which covers Apple’s Core Technology Fee (CTF). During
the installation process, Apple confirms with the user multiple times if they
wish to proceed with installing a third-party app, before it finally lets them get
through.
AltStore PAL is bringing with it two apps, both developed by
Testut himself: the Delta game emulator and a clipboard manager app ‘Clip’. The
Delta app is simultaneously also making way to the App Store outside of the EU.
According to Testut, AltStore PAL is also open to submissions from third-party
developers.
For the purpose of monetization, AltStore PAL is incorporating
its marketplace with Patreon, and intends to assist developers in distributing
beta apps as a reward for crowd-sourced funding – something that the App Store
doesn’t allow.
Contrary to what may be perceived, AltStore PAL is actually
not a new app marketplace, as it made its first debut in 2019 for iOS. The only
challenge has been making it work on the iPhone by tricking the device into
thinking you’re the app’s developer, with the help of AltServer - a software that
runs on a Mac or PC.
It is plausible that with a software that runs on the iPhone,
developers won’t need to go through the App Store each time to get onto
customer’s devices. While the Delta app is now fully supported by Apple,
Clip still needs some workarounds that are all against the App Store policies,
in order to run in the background.
