Google opens Registered App Stores for Android on 1 December

Google opens Registered App Stores for Android on 1 December

27 October 2026: Google will let third-party Android app stores register with it from 1 December 2026 and, once approved, install apps with a single tap and update them in the background, on devices running Android 17 QPR2 or later. The programme covers 107 named countries and territories, from India, Pakistan and Brazil to Japan, South Korea and the Gulf; the United States, the United Kingdom and the EU member states are not on its list.

Not yet independently verified. Google's pages state a fixed annual registration fee but not its amount, and give no date beyond their last update of 27 October. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

What a registered store gets

Today an Android store outside Google Play works like any sideloaded app. The user has to allow it to install packages in system settings, confirm every install in a dialog, and approve each update by hand. A Registered App Store skips all three: the permission is granted automatically once the store is verified, installs need no extra confirmation screen, and updates run in the background under the user's own settings. Registration is optional, and a store that does not register keeps today's experience.

Availability follows the user's home account country. Travel abroad does not switch the feature off; a permanent move changes it to whatever the new country supports.

What Google asks in return

The route in has five steps: an interest form, a pre-qualification review, payment of what Google calls "a fixed annual registration fee", a technical evaluation, and activation. Only verified organisation accounts in the Android Developer Console can apply, the store must be a native APK rather than a web wrapper, and its package name has to be registered with Google.

The obligations are substantial. A store must upload its own APK for malware scanning and keep sharing its full catalogue and every app update with Google for review. It must run as an open marketplace with non-discriminatory policies, must not block other stores, and must fix major security flaws reported to it. Two further requirements arrive later:

• certification under the App Defense Alliance Mobile Profile (MASA AL2), renewed every year, from 1 June 2027;
• a data safety section on every listing, built from the App Metadata Bundle, from 1 December 2027, along with a memory consumption limit from the same date.

If more than 1% of install attempts, or 2% of the apps in a catalogue over 30 days, turn out to be potentially harmful, Google says it will charge variable fees to screen and clean up the catalogue.

Who should look at it

The programme is aimed at store operators: handset makers, carriers, regional marketplaces and enterprise app catalogues distributing internal apps to staff devices outside Play. For an enterprise catalogue, the question is whether the yearly fee and the obligation to share every internal build with Google are worth one-tap installs, given that managed devices can already push apps silently through device management.

App developers selling through those regional stores gain mainly from fewer drop-offs at the install prompt. It is a separate scheme from the US-only "Third-Party App Store on Play" arrangement.

Our catalogue lists 12 app store optimisation tools and 8 mobile device management products.

Related on TrustList:

• Korea fines Google and Apple 63.7 billion won over app payment rules

Sources

• Android Developers: Overview of Registered App Stores (last updated 27 October 2026), 27 October 2026
• Android Developers: Registered App Stores requirements (last updated 27 October 2026), 27 October 2026
• Android Developers: Registered App Stores FAQ (last updated 27 October 2026), 27 October 2026