iPhone app sideloading? Developers can’t agree whether it’s a blessing or a disaster waiting to happen
It’s something few people ever thought would happen, and it still might not. But a recent report claiming that Apple is ready to open up the iPhone to apps installed by methods other than the App Store has reignited debate – would sideloading be good or bad?
The answer to that question is complicated. There is not even net one answer. Whether sideloading would be beneficial depends a lot on who you are and what you do. If you’re a power user, the answer will be very different than if you were someone who only uses their iPhone to send iMessages and browse Facebook.
And if you’re a developer, do you build apps for Apple’s platform? Well, things are even more complicated for you.
To give the App Store some competition
One thing that is often said about the App Store is that it has no competition, because due to Apple’s rules, it can’t. There is no other way to spread real apps on iPhones and web apps have their limitations. After all, if HTML 5 could do everything developers and users needed it to do, we wouldn’t have the App Store in the first place.
That lack of competition, as is so often the case in other industries, means Apple can effectively do and charge what it wants. Those who don’t want to pay Apple 30% of their App Store revenue have no real options other than simply not selling an iPhone app in the first place. This is the route that Epic Games took with Fortnite. And two years later, Fortnite is still missing from the App Store.
Keeping with the Fortnite example, competition would mean that Epic could distribute Fortnite as it chooses. If the alternative means giving a third party a smaller cut, or perhaps none at all, then the market will speak and the App Store will lose. But none of this happens because third-party app stores and sideloading are generally not possible.
But what if they were?
“I think payment competition would be a good thing in terms of possible experiences, but I’m worried that every store will end up with the same prices after launch periods,” says developer Alex Logan (opens in new tab). “I think the PC gaming situation has proven that in a way, that all these platforms are available with different cuts, but the actual price you pay is not different.”
In those cases, users won’t pay less, but developers will benefit greatly.
Menu Plan (opens in new tab) developer Davide Benini is part of Apple’s small business program, which means the company’s cut of its sales is 15% rather than 30%. He says that “if that 15% became 5% or even 10%, it would make a big difference.” And those whose cut is higher will benefit even more. “Obviously, this will make a bigger difference for those outside of the small business programs, who currently pay 30% to Apple,” Benini adds.
Own the experience
However, there are benefits to selling apps outside of the App Store that go far beyond money. As things stand, developers don’t own the relationship with their customers with Apple acting as an intermediary whether they want it to or not. Developers are often the ones app users reach out to for refunds, but only Apple can initiate them, for example.
Removing Apple from the equation will change that.
“[That] is definitely an aspect of the App Store that could improve,” says Benini. “I have no way of knowing my users’ email and of course it would be nice to be able to contact my paying customers, or get back to them when I see an accident in my log.”
Benini is not alone. Speaking of the relationship he wants to have with users, Logan says more control will give him the flexibility to keep customers he would otherwise lose.
“If someone wants to cancel, I’d love to be able to offer them special offers, or super-tailored offers just through one channel,” he says. “I think Apple can offer it, and I hope they do, so maybe some competition will push it forward.”
The not-so-wild west
One issue that some people have suggested that sideloading can bring is a lack of security. Apple itself claims the App Store is the only thing between users and the wild west – apps that can steal data and other things that only App Store review can prevent. But this is not necessarily true. Unusually, the Mac might be the answer.
While the Mac App Store functions in much the same way as the one on iPhone and iPad, being able to install apps outside of its walled garden is a given. But that doesn’t mean apps aren’t vetted by Apple.
Mac apps can be “notarized,” meaning Apple has checked them for malicious code to ensure they’re safe. It’s an approach it can take with iPhone apps as well.
“I’m convinced we’ll see a similar system to Mac, where most applications are notarized, but of course you can download anything completely random from the Internet,” says Logan. He expects Apple to display multiple warnings if an app isn’t notarized so people know what they’re getting into. “I’ve no doubt we’ll get loads of warnings before we do this, I just hope it’s good enough to stop vulnerable people being told to download a banking app by some random link.”
Google’s Android has allowed sideloading since day one and offers a similar warning when users try to install apps downloaded outside of the Play Store. Apple can do something similar if it chooses.
Not a foregone conclusion
But with all of this laid out, what will developers choose to do if and when Apple blows the doors off the iPhone and allows people to download apps outside of the App Store?
“I will definitely keep my app in the App Store; removing it from the App Store would mean losing the position I’ve managed over the last 18 months,” adds Benini. “I get most of my downloads from organic downloads, it wouldn’t make any sense to lose that.” But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t also make his app available in other stores if given the choice. “If and when another store gains traction, I may consider putting my app there as well.”
DEVON Technologies (opens in new tab)the company behind DEVONthink, says that it haven’t decided (opens in new tab) what it will do when the choice comes. It doesn’t make the Mac version of its apps available in the Mac App Store, but it has confirmed that it will at least keep its iPhone and iPad apps in the App Store “for its update and subscription handling alone.”
This is a key consideration here. Subscription management and indeed payment processing is all handled automatically by the App Store. Any money that changes hands elsewhere will need to be processed.
Logan’s stance reflects this. “While I’d love to get my app to as many people as possible, I’m not looking forward to the idea of having to deal with a bunch of different payment methods when it comes to subscriptions,” he says. But importantly, that stance could change if the numbers make the extra work worth it. “That could change if someone says I can keep 95% of my subscription income.”
There’s another layer here that some people haven’t already pointed out – the App Store helps protect developers from having their apps copied, although it doesn’t always do a good job of it.
But with apps that can be installed from anywhere, that protection is gone.
There are many valid points on both sides, but here’s one I don’t see often. For mid-sized companies, one risk is a copycat app that steals your IP and undercuts your price. Easy to deal with when Apple can step in, but with X external app stores it can be expensiveDecember 14, 2022
Ultimately, it can all come to nothing. But Bloomberg’s article suggests that the EU is ready to force Apple’s hand. And as much as Apple may have tried to dig its heels in over the years, the EU usually gets what it wants. A future USB-C iPhone should prove it.
To sideload, or not to sideload
Whether it will be a good idea to open up the iPhone for side charging or not, only time will tell. Some worry that apps like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp will inevitably be removed from the App Store just because they can be, leaving customers confused. But we only have to look as far as Android to prove that this is not necessarily the case. Big companies like Meta know that the place most people go for apps is the Play Store, so that’s where their apps are. And yes, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are all available there to download as well.
As for who will benefit the most from sideloading, it will surely be people like us. Power users who want to use apps that wouldn’t normally make it into the App Store because they violate Apple’s rules. Game emulators are the obvious example here, but there are others. And if sideloading is what it takes to get them without the messiness of jailbreaking, so be it.
But what is clear is that sideloading is not a silver bullet. There are questions to be answered and solutions to be found. But the mere suggestion that Apple might one day allow third-party app stores and sideloading is enough to get those conversations going. And they clearly need will happen soon.
