Let's face it, we all know that Google has a monopoly with its set of apps in the US. Why? Because all the popular manufacturers have made a contract with Google to include all of the gapps in their phones. What does that mean? It means that every phone you buy will include Google Play as the default appstore to buy all the software on your phone. There are no other alternatives installed by default.The good thing about Android is that it gives you freedom and with it comes option. These options are four alternatives you can install on your phone or tablet, where you can download all the apps you need.
f-droid
It is appstore that includes a repositorie of only free and open source (FOSS) apps. Does not need an account to work.
Amazon appstore
Amazon's own alternative to Google Play. Needs an Amazon account to work. Offers free and paid apps.There is also free paid app offer each day.
Yandex.store
Yandex known as the Google of Russia launched its own appstore to compete in select markets. Does not need an account to download free apps. For paid apps, you may need an account.
While the number of all these stores combined pales in comparison to Google's own. They are quite good alternatives for those who want to different options and do not want to depend only on Google.
+aptoide store
no registration needed
Awesome thanks cuatr0, I will have to give these a try .
Cheers
Quazza
THe issue is there are other app sites as well . But they come and go. Say you buy a bunch of apps from one of them . They useally do not track your apps and allow you to reinstall all with one push. And say you buy a 10.00 app then the site closes..
I think google and Amazon are only two i would trust at this time
wheres the 4th alternative?
Because of government rules and regulations, Google Play Store is not working in China. Therefore, there are many Chinese APP Stores such as Baidu phone helper, wandoujia and XX market as a substitution of Play Store. And some of these APP Stores such as Anzhi market may provide paied apps to you. Chinese is also a better option if you are less concerned about your privacy.
i often use the store on androidpit, but i still prefer the easy access to google play
Related
Is there a way to sync the apps on both markets? If I buy an app on Amazon's market I can see it in my app list in App Brain...however if there is an update available it only takes me to the Android market and it doesn't recognize that I bought it already. It's not a big deal but I would like both markets to register the paid versions out of ease and streamlining.
zetterwing said:
Is there a way to sync the apps on both markets? If I buy an app on Amazon's market I can see it in my app list in App Brain...however if there is an update available it only takes me to the Android market and it doesn't recognize that I bought it already. It's not a big deal but I would like both markets to register the paid versions out of ease and streamlining.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't be done, unfortunately. As the Android Market and the Amazon Market are two individual stores, they take their own profit margins on sales through their respective stores. Moreso, I would avoid purchasing an app through Amazon, except for the free app of the day, as any app downloaded that way cannot be run without the presence of Amazon's App Store app.
A better solution to your problem would come from within Appbrain's service itself. As an app manager, and an effective online management solution for android apps, it would solve this problem if it could manage Amazon app accounts in addition to Google's.
That's what I thought. Fortunately I have only actually purchased one app from Amazon besides the freebies.
I've heard of several devices that are unable to access the android market. I was wondering if there is a way to simply have access to the APK files, essentially a market back door. I don't even know if this allowed because frankly, I don't understand how the market works. I'm focusing on the word, "open market".
Reason for the question: I may getting a Nook soon but I read that some of them can't access the market using honeycomb.
Thanks.
If it's a free app, that's fine. Many devs even make the apk available on their website. The market only serves as a convenient search engine and auto updater for free apps.
If it's a paid app, that's illegal and a violation of the forum rules - do not ask again. For paid apps, the market serves as a search engine, shopping cart / checkout, license validater, and auto updater.
In case you are asking about a paid app, i'll save you the effort... even if you did get your hands on the apk, most of them will fail to start or run b.c. the market will reject your phone when it tries to validate your copy of the app on app startup.
I thought I made it clear that I didn't know much about the market which is why I'm asking. I forgot that some apps are paid apps, simply an oversight. Your attempt to offer helpful advice was clouded by an unnecessary admonishment of my actions. I'm very well aware of the forum rules. Simply stated, you're making it sound like I'm trying to steal from developers, I'm not. I'm simply trying to find a way to get "free" apps that are listed as such on the market using a device that does not seem to have access to the market.
You could always grab the Amazon Appstore .apk and use that to search and download applications, too.
totalanonymity said:
You could always grab the Amazon Appstore .apk and use that to search and download applications, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow... that didn't even occur to me--thanks!
market enabler is a neat app too. It lets you fool the market into thinking you have a different phone.
http://code.google.com/p/market-enabler/downloads/list
I didn't find this mentioned anywhere..sorry if its old news
Downloaded this app 3 days ago..
https://market.android.com/details?...azon.appstore.free.apps&feature=search_result
(Amazon Appstore -Notifier&Tips
Top Free Apps)
it provides a link in the app to download the amazon us app store (i cant find it anywhere else to download..so it was a big deal)
And i'm a Uk android owner..and it worked! One free paid app a day! lovely
Do you need to use an amazon account that is registed to the usa?
i signed in with my uk email and password....
You need to set up payment and re-enter your phone number in the 1 click ordering part (even if you are downloading free apps). But you just click payment and your card detail for your non US account come up and you just confirm it.
They make you set up payment before you can take advantage of free apps etc....so you are more likely to buy pay-for-apps if its already set up (marketing tactic)
My australian account works also, w00t!
Works for me too...cheers op!
It did indeed work for a while. Now however the party is over again...
I posted this an another forum, but couldn't generate much discussion. I'm hoping to get some input on this topic. Lately, I've been transitioning to getting most of my apps from Amazon Appstore instead of Google Playstore. I need to make a distinction here, I'm not a fan of Fire OS, just their Appstore experience. Here are some of the reasons why I prefer Amazon Appstore, remember these are my personal experience, you don't have to agree to them:
-Free apps. Playstore have free stuff once a while, but there are so much give away by Amazon and good ones too.
-Coins. Initially I thought the concept of coins were stupid and redundant, but if you have kids or have a single family account that are accessed by multiple person/devices, coins are very useful. You don't need to add credit card info or buy physical gift cards to redeem money, just gift that account some coins and it can purchase apps and online contents. It's a good way to avoid overspending. Also sometimes you get coins bonus from purchases.
-Alphabetic list of apps you purchased and downloaded. IMO, Google purposefully do not list your purchased apps by alphabetic orders so it is harder to search and remember them after you have too many apps, which results in buying more apps. I spent about $500 total for apps and in app purchases over the years on PlayStore, when I want to look through all the apps I bought I have to scroll through a long list of apps completely unsorted. I am aware there are third party apps that can sort Playstore apps, but they are can have bugs when there are updates and are not integrated, I don't want to use them.
-No "license key apps" or "unlocked pro features apps". Sometimes on Playstore when you download a free app, if you want to unlock the pro features you also have to download the license key app, which is not an app in itself, but only serve the purpose of unlocking the pro features. I'm not a fan of this and it's clumsy design imo. It seems Amazon doesn't allow this and instead have them as in app purchases. I actually like the IAP implementation by Amazon, you can disable IAP all together, which is useful if you have kids or just hate IAPs. I'm actually not sure if Playstore have PIN code for quick purchases, I remember that option used to exist in the older Playstore versions, but it's convenient to make Amazon purchases with a PIN.
-Does not require joining social network to review apps or sync your games. It is ludicrous that Google required you to join Google+ to review Playstore apps or use "Play Games" feature. Amazon have game syncing features that keep scores and savegames as well, you only need to log into your Amazon account. I don't want Google+ enable for my private email, but I already purchased many Playstore contents on it, so I'll have to continue to use it, unless Google allows me to transfer all my Playstore purchases from one email to another.
-Lastly, this might sound stupid, but it have it's benefits. With Amazon Appstore, you can access to your apps on both Android and Amazon devices. The key difference here is unlike trying to get a Google services to work on a Kindle devices, vice versa you don't have to do any hackery or unsupported trials to get Amazon Appstore to work on Android devices, it just work immediately after sideloading.
I think the biggest factor for me is due to the free apps and coins bonuses, I feel more rewarded when using Amazon Appstore than Playstore. Currently, I do not root my phone any longer, I don't bother with kernel tweaking, that significantly reduces my reliance on the Google Playstore since most of the root apps are there. Except for a few apps, pretty much Playstore is only used for updating Google apps on my Android phone now. One thing that I still feel missing from both stock Android and Fire OS are permission management (without rooting), which why I'm still using CyanogenMod for the Privacy Guard feature.
As for the Fire Phone. I've watched some reviews on this phone, but all of them are from hardcore Android users, so there isn't a bias free view on it. I think Fire OS interface is still dreadful, I've read the bad reviews, but I still want to try it myself. I figure for $100 unlocked (subtract the one year free Prime membership) it'll make a good backup phone considering it have similar specs to the Nexus 5 (except 1080p) which cost 3 times as much. This is not my daily phone, I have multiple other Android phones currently so it's not like I'm limiting myself.
I was an early adopter of Amazon Appstore, but company's shady practices turned me off and I doubt I will put any money into their apps. They did not allow any restrictions on purchases, if kids would use my tablet they could buy anything there and there was nothing I could do. I see a similar trend in Fire Phone, by default it comes registered to your account, using one-click payment. They are ready to take your money even if you do not authorize the purchase yourself.
virx14 said:
I was an early adopter of Amazon Appstore, but company's shady practices turned me off and I doubt I will put any money into their apps. They did not allow any restrictions on purchases, if kids would use my tablet they could buy anything there and there was nothing I could do. I see a similar trend in Fire Phone, by default it comes registered to your account, using one-click payment. They are ready to take your money even if you do not authorize the purchase yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I notice that they enabled one click purchase automatically after I install Appstore on the device, but it seems I can disable it, and even remotely from "Your Account -> Your Apps and Devices" from Amazon website. I just make sure Parental Control is enabled on all my Amazon devices.
I have to admit one thing I like about Google Playstore is there is a feature where you can request to get refunds on apps you bought that are past their refund period. When I found out about it, I tried to get refund for more than a dozen apps that I either didn't like or no longer updated and got refund for over half of them. Amazon have something called Test Drive to try out app, but it's not the same thing.
It's funny how Google update some of their apps sooner on iOS than on Android, and doesn't support Amazon devices even though it's closer to Android than iOS. I wonder if they will change their mind once Amazon devices gain more market share.
eksasol said:
It's funny how Google update some of their apps sooner on iOS than on Android, and doesn't support Amazon devices even though it's closer to Android than iOS. I wonder if they will change their mind once Amazon devices gain more market share.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google apps aren't included in FireOS because it's not 'Google Certified', which it would need include the Play Store, Maps, Gmail, etc.
So either Amazon didn't send FireOS to get certified, it failed the certification process, or Google wouldn't put it though the certification process for some reason.
pjs312 said:
Google apps aren't included in FireOS because it's not 'Google Certified', which it would need include the Play Store, Maps, Gmail, etc.
So either Amazon didn't send FireOS to get certified, it failed the certification process, or Google wouldn't put it though the certification process for some reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's more to do with Amazon trying to compete with Google as far as appstores go so why put another appstore on your phone when you want to make the money.
Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk
Anyway to get around it?
In the last few years I've installed dozens of ROMs in several devices from smartphones to tablets and NEVER had to pay again for any app.
Your purchases should be tied to your google play account, not your device or rom.
frogger72 said:
Your purchases should be tied to your google play account, not your device or rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Adding on to that all you have to do is log in to the Google Play account you bought the apps/games/movies/music on and then find that product in the google play store. Since you bought it before it will let you download it without paying again.
A great app for making a list of what you have installed is My App List (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.projectsexception.myapplist&hl=en). It will also take you to the play store and let you install each app on the list. So run it before you flash, store the file it creates some where other than your device's storage, flash, install the app again and then copy your list back where My App List need to find it and go put your apps back.