AltStore Visits the EU: A Recap

Hi Patrons!

It’s hard to believe it’s already been over a month since our last update, and what a month it’s been. While we haven’t been able to release any new betas, we have been working very hard on getting our EU “app marketplace” off the ground. Over the last few weeks we have been all over the place, putting the pieces together and drumming up some hype for the final release. So while we are still waiting on the last touches before launch, we thought you might like to hear what it’s been like so far!

Because we can only test that the EU version works while we’re abroad, we started our trip in Ireland where Apple was hosting a lab for alternative marketplaces. Our intention was to spend the week making sure everything was working properly and launch from Ireland once the app was ready… we were very hopeful back then. We spent a full week working directly with a small team dedicated just to helping us at Apple’s headquarters in Cork, and we were able to get all the technical pieces up and running. However, it was made clear to us that there was still going to be a lot of legwork for Apple to approve us for launch. Namely, the app notarization process is still in the early stages and not as simple as it will be in the coming months. We submitted Delta and Clip for notarization during this lab, but as of this time, they are still being notarized and will need to be approved before we can proceed. Because of this, we decided to stay in Europe and try to see what else we could do while we were here waiting.

The next week we spent in Dublin, where we were able to meet up with developer Steve Troughton-Smith — a veteran in the indie app community. We showed him everything we had been working on up to that point, and he was kind enough to share his thoughts on Mastodon, where some media members picked it up and started discussions about AltStore. However, it was clear at this point there would still be even more waiting to do before launch, and so we set our eyes on the DMA workshop being held in Brussels, where we could speak with Apple directly about our thoughts on alternative app marketplaces.

At the workshop, we had the opportunity to speak Apple’s legal representatives and learn more about their process, giving us some good insights on what was happening in Cupertino. As well, we were able to meet plenty of good folks, such as the MacPaw team who is developing Setapp for iOS to also take advantage of the new laws. But most importantly, we were able to ask Apple about the CTF and its impact on indie developers who are afraid to pay lofty fees should their app go viral. This got their attention, as well as some media attention that we think has put more pressure on Apple to make some adjustments to their rules. We’ll be staying in contact with the European Commission if we don’t hear of any changes in the near future as this is a cause we very much believe in and want to make sure any developer feels safe releasing an app outside the app store. 

And now we are in the home stretch.. well we hope. There’s still some information we’ve been providing to Apple about our business so they can be sure we are ready to launch, but we feel this is coming to an end very soon. In the meantime, we were also able to speak with TechCrunch and The Verge about our launch, and this week there has already been some great coverage about AltStore. We’re hopeful that this brings a lot of positive changes to the entire developer community, and for users like you who want to use apps outside the app store. We can never thank you enough for supporting us throughout this journey as it’s your support that has kept AltStore (Delta and Clip) going long enough to reach this point 💚

We’ll be trying to get back to our normal development schedule very soon, and hope to get y’all some fun things again very soon!

Much Love,

Shane + Riley