After nearly six years of legal bombshells and courtroom drama, the walled garden of the Android app ecosystem has finally cracked. This week, Google announced a massive, platform-altering overhaul to its Android operating system, officially marking the end of its legal battle with Epic Games.
In a move that will fundamentally reshape the economics of mobile software, the tech giant says it is rolling out a “new era” of openness that drastically alters how the Google Play Store operates.
Google decouples service and billing fees, allows registered third-party app stores, and gives developers choice when it comes to payments.
Here is an overview of the announced changes by Sameer Samat, President of the Android ecosystem:
- Expanded Billing Choice: Developers can now use their own billing systems alongside Google Play’s or direct users to their own websites for purchases.
- Registered App Stores Program: A new initiative to streamline the installation flow for third-party app stores that meet specific safety and quality benchmarks.
- Revised Fee Structure: A new business model that decouples billing fees from service fees, reducing the in-app purchase service fee to 20% (or as low as 15% for those in specific developer programs).
- Resolution with Epic Games: The post also notes that these updates officially resolve Google’s long-standing global legal disputes with Epic Games.
The changes are a major shift from the walled-garden approach of Google and also Apple. While it is uncertain how this change affects Apple, if at all, it will open up Android.
The effects for users and developers
The biggest immediate effect is the end of the 30 percent fee that Google is charging for any transaction on the platform. Google replaces it with the following system:
- The service fee is dropped to 20 percent as the new baseline.
- Developers who participate in the new “App Experience” or “Play Games Level Up” programs pay 15 percent.
- Billing fees, if developers want to still use the billing system of Google Play, adds “market-specific fees” to the bill. Google set it to 5 percent in core markets such as US, UK and EEA.
Developers who choose to distribute their apps through their own store and process payments using their own billing system pay nothing to Google under the new system.
Sideloading is changing as well with the official Registered App Stores program. Third-party app stores that are accepted into the program get a “streamlined, friction-free installation process”. Provided that Google allows competitors, like the Epic Games Store, into the program, it will make it easier to install games offered through these stores.
When is this coming?
The rollout will happen in phases.
- By June 30, 2026: US, UK, and EEA.
- By September 30, 2026: Australia.
- By December 31, 2026: Japan and Korea.
- By September 30, 2027: The rest of the world.
It remains to be seen how this will all work out and whether it will really be that easy for developers to set up their own store and billing system.
They will have anticipated what was inevitable: a little more ethical flexibility