Is Aptoide safe? I tried Android's first alternative app store on Google Play - and it's a mess

Google Play - and it's a mess">

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This was the inevitable outcome Google dreaded: Thanks to an antitrust case it lost to Epic Games, the company was forced to open the Play Store to certified, third-party app stores. The first of these is Aptoide , a decentralized marketplace for Android apps that's been around for nearly 20 years.

Although the new market is slated to launch internationally, it is currently only available to install from the Google Play Store in the US, as that's the minimum Google must do to comply with the order . Outside of the US, users can side-load the Aptoide app.

Legality aside, what is Aptoide, and should you use it? I decided to test this third-party Android market again (I first tried it years ago) to see how well it worked and if it could be trusted.

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Hang on, this gets confusing. Let's break it down a bit:

There's a picture being drawn here. It feels to me as though Google has sort of side-stepped the ruling by allowing a third-party app store on the Google Play Store, but what it has allowed can't even remotely compete with the Play Store.

For example, open the Aptoide Games app and go to the Categories section, where you'll only see two categories.

This is the Aptoide Games app, which can be installed from the Google Play Store.

On the Aptoide app, you'll find considerably more categories, but even those are limited to games. In fact, if you sideload the official site, you'll find there is no "Apps" section. The only way to find non-game apps from Aptoide is to use the Search tool. So in both cases, you're limited.

On the other hand, if you go to the Aptoide website , you'll see an Apps section, where you can find all sorts of non-game apps. In fact, the Aptoide website has a bit of a Google Play Store feel. The app? Not so much. Yes, you can search for non-gaming apps in the app version of Aptoide, and whatever you're looking for will show up in the results (if it's available).

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Even when you go to the search tool, you'll find a list of popular searches, and (for me) it always lists games.

If you scroll down to the Trending section, you might run into non-game apps. In my case, I saw Android Developer Verifier, Ping VPN, bale by BTN, Phone Cleaner for Android, Pipl VPN… are you seeing the "trend"? More on that in a bit.