"Android is already quite friendly to installing whatever other applications and application stores you want, but what they’re talking about here is allowing rival application stores inside the Play Store. This way, instead of downloading, say, the F-Droid APK from the web and installing it, you could just install the F-Droid application store straight from within the Play Store." US judge says he’ll ‘tear the barriers down’ on Google’s app store monopoly: https://www.osnews.com/story/140502/us-judge-says-hell-tear-the-barriers-down-on-googles-app-store-monopoly/
@admin I agree completely. I use a de-Googled Android operating system with its own little nifty app store, and for me that needs to be the default approach for all Android devices: allow folks to install whatever apps they want, through whatever app management system they want - like Linux on desktop.
@MediaActivist As someone using an Android install that never had Play Store to begin with I wish they'd do this another way...I've hit a number of apps that don't work because I don't have Play Services, even when I manage to get them installed without it...this change won't let you avoid Google at all, it just means you need Google *and* the other thing.