Android Registered App Stores Open at $10,000 a Year

Third-party Android app stores outside the US can now apply to Google for the same one-tap installs and silent background updates that the Play Store enjoys. Google published the rules, fees and supported countries for its Registered App Stores programme in new developer documentation dated 27 October. The price of entry is a $10,000 annual fee, paid before Google will review a store.

“Eligible app stores outside the US can now apply to register their stores ahead of the new simplified installation experience rolling out to users later this year,” a Google spokesperson told Ars Technica. Support starts on 1 December on phones running Android 17 QPR2 or later.

What a registered store gets

Today, an Android user who installs a rival app store has to switch on a system permission for it and then confirm every app it installs and every update. Google’s overview sets out what changes for stores that register:

	Registered App Store	Standard app store
Install permission	Granted automatically once verified	User must enable it manually in settings
Installs	One tap, no extra confirmation screen	A confirmation dialog for every app
Updates	Automatic in the background, with user controls	Manual approval for each update

Source: Google, Android Developers Registered App Stores overview, updated 27 October 2026.

Registration is “completely optional,” Google says. Stores that stay out keep working as they do now, as ordinary sideloaded apps.

A fee, a catalogue check and a security audit

Google’s requirements page restricts the programme to verified organisation accounts; individual developers cannot apply. Stores must run an open marketplace that does not discriminate between developers, may not block other stores, and have to protect intellectual property.

The enrolment guide lists an “annual registration fee of $10,000”, payable to start the eligibility review. Stores must upload their own app and share “the complete app catalog and ongoing app updates with Google for malware review.” Extra fees apply if potentially harmful apps account for “more than 1% of install attempts or 2% of apps in the catalog over a 30 day period.” From 1 June 2027, stores will also need an App Defense Alliance security certification.

Google will not police what the stores sell, beyond malware. Its requirements say “Google won’t moderate the content available within registered app stores.” Company IT administrators can block registered stores on managed phones, according to the FAQ.

107 regions, and not the US

Google’s FAQ lists 107 named countries and territories, from Albania to Zimbabwe, including Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Japan, Brazil and South Korea, plus a catch-all entry for “Rest of the World”. The UK, the US and the EU’s member states are not named. Ars Technica reported that support covers “most of the world outside of the US and Europe”.

The US is handled separately. Google first set out the programme in March, when Android’s Sameer Samat wrote that it would “begin outside of the US first, and we intend to bring it to the US as well, subject to court approval”, after Google “resolved our disputes worldwide with Epic Games”. In the US, a separate Third-Party App Store on Play scheme lets rival stores be distributed through Google Play; Ars Technica reported that Aptoide is so far the only store listed.

Hardware is the other limit. Ars Technica reported that Android 17 QPR2 is expected on Pixel phones in the coming weeks, but that many phones in supported countries may never receive a compatible update. Eligibility follows a user’s home account country, not where the phone happens to be.

Google now sets the price of competing with Google

The programme answers a real problem: rival stores on Android have carried extra steps that Google Play does not, and every extra prompt is a chance for a user to give up. One-tap installs and silent updates remove that handicap. But the same features are exactly what makes a store dangerous if it turns bad. A trusted channel that updates software without asking is the kind of path attackers prize, as the abandoned Popcorn Time updater showed. Google’s catalogue sharing and malware thresholds are its answer.

The cost is that Google becomes the gatekeeper for its own competitors. A $10,000 fee is small for a handset maker’s store but meaningful for a niche or open-source catalogue, and continuous catalogue sharing gives Google a view of rivals’ inventories. Apple faces similar questions over how it polices alternative distribution of iPhone apps. Regulators have also shown they will step in where a platform controls access: Britain’s competition watchdog wants Apple to open the iPhone’s contactless chip to rival wallets. Whether the UK sits inside “Rest of the World” is something Google’s own list does not answer.

Google is also widening what Play itself can host, including private vibe-coded apps for personal use. Google has not said whether it will publish a list of approved stores. The ones that switch on one-tap installs from 1 December will show who thinks the fee is worth paying.