Google's $700M settlement brings major changes to Play store and expands payment options

Google has agreed to implement several changes to Google Play and sideloading as part of a $700 million settlement with the U.S. attorney general. These changes include supporting app installs from third-party app stores, allowing alternative billing mechanisms for in-app purchases, and granting more rights to preloaded apps by OEM installers. Google will also combine the warning screen for installing apps from alternative sources with the settings screen. However, the impact of these changes on developers may be limited, as the 4% discount offered by Google for user choice billing may not be enough to incentivize a switch to another payment processor.