As a rule, apps and games for the Android smartphone are downloaded from the official Google Play Store. However, there are also alternatives that often offer certain advantages.
Using the Google Play Store is considered to be quite safe and also the fastest and easiest way to find and install apps and games. Unlike Apple’s iOS, however, Android offers the possibility of using alternatives. Because the operating system not only allows the installation of other app stores, but even individual apps directly from the Internet.
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The best alternative app stores
Anyone who has ever had a Samsung smartphone knows that the company also runs its own app store – the Galaxy Store. On the other hand, the so-called App Gallery is installed on Huawei smartphones, since the company cannot access Google services, including the Play Store. These are two examples that are only available on certain smartphones. However, there are also alternative app stores that work on any Android smartphone.
The advantage of these alternatives is that you can often find apps there that are not available in the Google Play Store. Because especially for smaller apps that maybe only fulfill a special function, it is often not worth going through the Play Store review process. Sometimes apps in the Play Store are also geo-restricted and not available in certain countries – can be downloaded from other app stores.
F-Droid
Unlike the PlayStore, F-Droid does not charge developers to offer their apps through the store. The store can be used on a smartphone without Google apps as the sole app store. Corresponding apps for email, maps and chats are available there. The advantage of F-Droid is that the apps found in it are ad-free and do not have access to user data. So if you want access to popular apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat, but prefer to protect your private data with other apps like email and maps, F-Droid is the right choice.
Since only open source apps can be found here, the offer is also completely free. Registration is also not necessary. The disadvantage of F-Droid is relatively clear: The archive contains just over 3000 apps. An unequal ratio to the more than two and a half million apps available in the Google PlayStore.
Continue reading: F-Droid – a completely free alternative to the Play Store?
Amazon App Store
As a “real” app store, the Amazon Appstore has the largest selection of apps alongside the Play Store. Since Amazon’s Kindle tablets cannot access the Play Store, the company created this alternative. However, the store can be installed on all Android smartphones directly from the Amazon site and uses Amazon Coins as an alternative payment system. The coins can either be bought or earned by installing specific apps. The Amazon App Store cannot be found in the Google Play Store, so you need to download the app yourself. You can find the link for it here.
Users can find most of the paid and free apps that are also available in the Play Store here. While the prices are pretty much the same apart from certain promotions, users can save up to 20 percent when paying with coins.
APKMirror
This isn’t really an app store. APKMirror is an online database that not only contains current versions of Android apps, but also provides previous builds (construction stages). This is useful, for example, when a new update is no longer compatible with the older smartphone. In addition to the website, APKMirror own appwhich can be used to search the database.
APKMirror only lists free apps. According to the company, apps are hand-curated by the community. The two main goals are to provide new updates that may not yet be available everywhere, and to bypass geo-restrictions. To use databases like APKMirror, it’s recommended to use an additional app like APKUpdater, which keeps these apps up to date.
This is how the installation of alternative app stores works
To use an alternative app store, one must first download and install the app store. The download is usually available on the App Store website. Once the App Store is installed, one can use it like the Google Play Store to search for apps and install them on the device.
To install apps from sources other than the Play Store, users must grant permission. This is possible in the Android security settings. As a rule, the app you want to install something with also asks for permission itself.
However, it is important to note that alternative app stores may not offer the same level of security and protection as the Google Play Store. It is advisable to only download and install apps from app stores that you trust and to regularly scan your smartphone for malware and other security threats.