Third-party App Store exists, AltStore allows limited sideloading of iPhone apps not approved by Apple

IT House May 7 news, according to Apple Insider, as Apple faces pressure to open the iPhone to third-party App Store providers, a developer has been helping users sideload apps since 2019 – and there is a requirement that users Overly broad legislative issues that can be sideloaded.

Apple has always insisted and clearly believed that sideloading poses a malware risk, and it will make changes to the law to allow unapproved apps to run on the iPhone. However,Developer Riley Testut has been using one of Apple’s own tools to allow users to install apps from outside the Apple-dominated App Store.

According to Fast Company, AltStore has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times since its launch in 2019. It reportedly has over 300,000 monthly active users, nearly 6,000 of whom contribute to Testut’s Patreon and pay him over $14,500 for his full-time service.

Once installed, AltStore allows users to add applications made by Testut. Users can also add any application they can find anywhere, as long as it uses the .ipa format. The version of the social media app with ads removed is reportedly popular, as is the classic game emulator.

AltStore takes advantage of the fact that Apple’s Xcode development platform allows users to load the apps they’re developing directly onto their own iPhones.

“When Apple announced [2015 年的功能] I thought, ‘Oh, so there’s some way to install apps on iOS, just use an Apple ID,’” Testut said. “From there I expanded it into a complete solution. “

The complete solution is not simple. It requires the user to install a Mac or PC application called AltServer, and then AltStore Security signs the application to make it appear that the application was created by the user.

Apps can only be installed if the iPhone and Mac or PC are on the same Wi-Fi network and running AltServer. Only three such apps can be installed at any one time, one of which is the mandatory AltStore.

Apps can be swapped out, but there are limitations. Any one user can only sideload up to 10 apps per week, and FastCompany says each app installed must be “refreshed” by connecting to the AltServer once a week.

The media confirmed that it works and is doing as advertised. However, installing AltServer and applications through it can be cumbersome.

Sideloading is a risk

Testut may not be able to bypass these and other Apple restrictions, but he plans to create a security system to ensure that sideloaded apps are not malicious.

“Sideloading is very risky,” Testut continued. “Because this is a tool people use, it’s our responsibility to make sure we do everything we can to prevent accidental messing up.”

So, perhaps ironically, Testut agrees with Apple about sideloading, or at least he agrees on a potentially massive scale. He disapproves of proposed legislation that could allow any consumer to download any app without any protections.

“Actually, we don’t like that,” he told Fast Company. “We really think they are too broad and they have serious implications for consumer privacy.”

However, Testut does believe very strongly that everyone should have the right to sideload if they want. He believes that the application industry needs this freedom.

“Apple has taken an approach to the App Store where they only approve what they have imagined,” he said, “so anything that pushes the boundaries, Apple rejects.”

“We need a way for an app to exist beyond the boundaries, and then people will see it and want it in the App Store,” he continued. “No cool, fun apps. We’d like to see more small, quirky, fun apps in the AltStore.”