The Competition Commission of India (CCI) fined Google last year for limiting third-party payment services and was also looking into other instances of the company’s anti-competitive activity. Google has to alter its contracts with phone manufacturers and relax the limits for users after its latest request to the Supreme Court to block CCI’s demands was denied.
Android users in India will be able to use third-party billing systems for apps and games starting the month after next. During setup, a choice screen will allow them to select a different default search engine. Despite the fact that other areas have implemented comparable regulations, these specific requirements only apply in India.
Smartphone manufacturers will be able to licence specific Google apps to ship with their products already installed. Prior to this, manufacturers were compelled to bundle the entire Google suite.
- Individual Google apps may be licenced by OEMs for pre-installation on their products.
- Android users have always had the option to personalise their smartphones to their tastes. A choice screen will soon start to show when a user starts up a new Android smartphone or tablet in India, giving Indian users the opportunity to select their preferred search engine.
- In order to allow partners to create incompatible or forked variants, we are changing the Android compatibility standards.
- Beginning the following month, all apps and games will support user choice billing. Developers can allow customers to select a different charging method in addition to Google Play’s billing method when they buy in-app digital content by using user choice billing.
- The installation of programmes from various sources, including sideloading, which entails downloading apps straight from a developer’s website, has always been supported by Android. We recently modified the way sideloaded apps and app stores automatically update on Android while making sure users are aware of any potential security threats.
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Recently, following pressure from the CCI, Google has consented to allow third-party app stores to be listed on the Google Play Store (check out the Reuters report for more details