Google app store overhaul expected by end of July

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Massive changes are finally expected to hit the Google Play Store next week, nearly two years after a federal judge issued an injunction requiring Google to open up Android to third-party app stores.

In a court filing Monday, Google and Epic Games, the maker of hit games like Fortnite, said they were withdrawing their motion to modify the court-ordered injunction, with Google confirming it plans to open up its Google Play Store to third-party Android app stores and distribute those third-party app stores through Google Play beginning July 22.

U.S. District Judge James Donato told the parties in court Thursday he was “focused on filling the terms of the injunction” and asked the parties to file monthly reports detailing their progress.

Under the injunction, Google will be prohibited from paying companies to launch apps on Google Play first or paying companies not to compete with Google Play. The company will also be prohibited from sharing revenue or paying fees to companies that choose not to compete with Google’s Play Store on Android platforms.

The injunction also prevents Google from requiring app developers to use Google Play Billing and prohibits Google from disallowing app developers from telling users about cheaper deals on their app stores or websites for digital goods.

Google will additionally have to carry third-party app stores on Google Play and permit those competing app stores to have access to Google Play’s catalog of apps unless they opt out.

The court-ordered changes are limited to the U.S. and run for three years, through 2029.

Representatives for the parties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The injunction follows a victory for Epic Games in a monthslong jury trial against Google in 2023.

Epic Games sued Google in 2020 after Google removed Epic’s hit game Fortnite from the Google Play Store after Epic hotfixed the game to bypass Google’s billing services.

Epic Games accused Google of locking up the app store market on Android through exclusive deals with smartphone makers and scaring users away from sideloading apps through the web by using security warnings telling users the risk of sideloading.

In October 2024, Donato, a Barack Obama appointee, issued a permanent injunction requiring Google to open up its Google Play Store on Android devices to third-party app stores and distribute those third-party app stores through Google Play.

The injunction was initially effective from Nov. 1, 2024, through Nov. 1, 2027, which the judge said would allow competitors to gain a foothold in the Android app store market. However, Donato paused enforcement of his order while Google appealed the injunction to the Ninth Circuit.

Indeed, Google fought the court’s order all the way to the Supreme Court, which rejected the tech giant’s request to delay changes to Google’s app store in October 2025.

The following month, Google and Epic announced they had reached a “comprehensive settlement” and asked Donato to modify his injunction. Following an evidentiary hearing in January, the parties once again requested modifications to the injunction in April, which Donato declined to rule on and ordered a second evidentiary hearing.

In April, Donato approved a separate $700 million settlement brought by a class of consumers and a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from all 50 states — along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands — that Google violated state and federal monopoly laws.

In addition to the monetary funds, the settlement requires Google to allow all developers to let users pay through in-app systems other than Google Play Billing for at least five years. It also must let developers tell users about alternatives to Google’s billing system, including contacting users via email and using in-app notifications.

The settlement further requires Google to allow the installation of third-party apps outside the Google Play Store on Android phones for at least seven years. It also can’t require developers to simultaneously launch app catalogs on the Play Store when they’re launched on another app store.

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