{"id":49574,"date":"2025-10-08T15:43:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T19:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=49574"},"modified":"2025-10-08T15:46:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T19:46:57","slug":"evolving-altstore-pal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/08\/evolving-altstore-pal\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolving AltStore PAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Riley Testut<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

In April of last year, we launched AltStore PAL<\/a> in the European Union as one of the first official alternative app marketplaces on iOS thanks to the Digital Markets Act. We launched with just 2 apps — my Nintendo emulator Delta<\/a> and clipboard manager Clip<\/a> — yet Apple immediately changed their App Store rules to allow emulators<\/a> worldwide for the first time ever.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

By far our number one request, we’re planning to launch AltStore PAL in more countries later this year in response to various regulatory changes around the world. Specifically, we plan to launch in Japan, Brazil, and Australia before the end of the year, with the UK to follow in 2026.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Using ActivityPub, we plan to federate apps, app updates, and news alerts from AltStore to the open social web. Each AltStore source will receive its own ActivityPub account, which can then be followed by any other open social web account. You’ll be able to like, boost, and reply to everything, and most importantly all these interactions will appear natively in AltStore.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Pace Capital is investing $6 million USD in AltStore in exchange for 15% equity. We will use this money to hire a few employees and build out a team, giving us the necessary bandwidth to finalize Fediverse integration and expand AltStore worldwide, while also releasing betas and app updates on a more regular basis.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Alternative app marketplaces are needed more than ever now, with new reasons for them popping up every week<\/a>. If there’s one constant though, it’s that Apple simply cannot be trusted<\/a> to be the sole distributor of apps on the iOS platform.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Even with app marketplaces, though, Apple still controls distribution through code signing and notarization. There is no equivalent of the Mac’s Gatekeeper override.<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n