{"id":289911,"date":"2026-07-15T15:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T19:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/big-changes-are-coming-to-androids-google-play-store-this-month\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T19:40:07","slug":"big-changes-are-coming-to-androids-google-play-store-this-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/big-changes-are-coming-to-androids-google-play-store-this-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Changes Are Coming To Android&#8217;s Google Play Store This Month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bgr.com\/2216021\/android-google-play-store-changes-third-party-apps\/\">Big Changes Are Coming To Android&#8217;s Google Play Store This Month<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bgr.com\/2216021\/android-google-play-store-changes-third-party-apps\/\">https:\/\/www.bgr.com\/2216021\/android-google-play-store-changes-third-party-apps\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-07-15 15:23:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.bgr.com\">www.bgr.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    <span class=\"gallery-image-credit\">FotoField\/Shutterstock<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Google Play Store has been the default home for officially downloading Android apps for years, but that&#8217;s about to change. Later this month, Google will enact changes that should make it much easier to install apps without relying solely on the company&#8217;s own marketplace in the United States. This major shift comes after Google and Epic Games unexpectedly abandoned a proposed settlement in what has been a multiyear legal fight. With the settlement abandoned, Google will now be forced to open the figurative doors of the Play Store to third-party app stores in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>The ongoing legal feud between Google and Epic has been something to watch, especially for fans of Android and gaming. However, for a while, it seemed like the companies wouldn&#8217;t come to a solid conclusion. Something began to shift back in December 2025, when Fortnite returned to Android&#8217;s biggest app store, though. For some additional context, Google was ordered by a judge to open up Android to third-party app stores in October 2024. However, the company continued to fight this injunction, pushing for a settlement \u2014 one that Epic had even gotten on board with\u00a0\u2014 which would allow it to avoid carrying third-party app stores directly in the Play Store, instead allowing users to sideload them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, now even that fight is officially over. As a Google spokesperson confirmed to The Verge, the company is withdrawing its motion to amend the injunction, which means Google will now need&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bgr.com\/2216021\/android-google-play-store-changes-third-party-apps\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Big Changes Are Coming To Android&#8217;s Google Play Store This Month https:\/\/www.bgr.com\/2216021\/android-google-play-store-changes-third-party-apps\/ Publish Date: 2026-07-15&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":289912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bgr.com\/img\/gallery\/big-changes-are-coming-to-androids-google-play-store-this-month\/l-intro-1784143217.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[70],"class_list":["post-289911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-android","tag-google"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289913,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289911\/revisions\/289913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}