The archenemy of Apple’s App Store is coming to a place no one expected it

Shortly after Apple was forced to allow third-party app stores across the European Union, alternatives started popping up. One of the first and probably the most popular is AltStore PAL, which also launched in Japan. Now the App Store alternative has made another move that could shake things up for Apple.

AltStore PAL is joining the fediverse

AltStore PAL announced that it’s integrating with the open social web. The company shared in a Mastodon post that the store is joining the fediverse. This will allow users across Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon to interact with federated apps on the explore.alt.store website. 

Users can like and comment on federated apps on the social web, and those interactions will appear on the AltStore PAL app itself. With the new update, users can now also sign into the alternative app store with their Bluesky or Mastodon accounts. Developers can choose whether their apps are federated or not.

Pushing the boundaries of the open web

AltStore PAL’s creator Riley Testut told The Verge that the goal of the fediverse features is to help make apps easier to discover. His goal is for apps to enjoy native support on ActivityPub, just like notes and articles, and appear on people’s feeds like any other item. 

That’s a rather novel way to use the so-called fediverse. On it, users join the open social web through independent servers that can interact with each other thanks to the ActivityPub protocol. Once federated, those servers allow people to interact and view posts from other social platforms. Mastodon is the most popular app to use the open social web, though Threads is the most used social media platform that’s at least partially in the fediverse.



AltStore PAL also said that it’s adding three fediverse-friendly apps to the store. Those are the open-source short-form video platform Loops, the video-sharing app PeerTube, and a Mastodon client called iPhanpy. The new apps are available on the store’s refreshed Sources page, which also features new app categories like “popular” and “fediverse favorites.”

AltStore PAL is currently available only in the European Union and Japan, but the company has said it will launch in more countries. Those will include Australia, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.

Niche, but awesome

I doubt that too many people would bother to install a third-party app store on their iPhone, but it’s still important to have the option. While Apple’s famous walled garden allows the company to offer a better user experience, having alternatives pushes the whole industry forward.