Iirc this is phrased in a slightly misleading way. What they actually want is apps on the play store to be allowed to use their own billing system. And they want to be allowed to offer alternative store apps on the play store.
Android itself or more precise AOSP is open source and of course anyone can do anything with it. This is about what is or isn’t allowed in the context of google app ecosystem that comes with 99.9% of all devices running android.
That makes a bit more sense, however that is very unfair to google, because it allows people to put an app for free on the store and profit on the outside without paying anything to google for providing the infrastructure to host and distribute the app. I wonder if Epic would allow a game that you need to buy from inside the game after installed to be distributed for free in their store, or steam to be distributed through their store.
Epic already have itch.io, Spotify, Discord and more on their store. Each has its own payments system. Microsoft also distributes the Epic launcher via its store.
Iirc this is phrased in a slightly misleading way. What they actually want is apps on the play store to be allowed to use their own billing system. And they want to be allowed to offer alternative store apps on the play store.
Android itself or more precise AOSP is open source and of course anyone can do anything with it. This is about what is or isn’t allowed in the context of google app ecosystem that comes with 99.9% of all devices running android.
That makes a bit more sense, however that is very unfair to google, because it allows people to put an app for free on the store and profit on the outside without paying anything to google for providing the infrastructure to host and distribute the app. I wonder if Epic would allow a game that you need to buy from inside the game after installed to be distributed for free in their store, or steam to be distributed through their store.
Epic already have itch.io, Spotify, Discord and more on their store. Each has its own payments system. Microsoft also distributes the Epic launcher via its store.