AltStore PAL, an alternative iOS app store available in the EU and Japan, is integrating with the fediverse. Users on platforms like Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky can now interact with apps federated on its website, with social interactions appearing within AltStore PAL itself.
The store's creator states the goal is to improve app discoverability by making them shareable on the social web, with a future aim of apps becoming native ActivityPub objects. This move coincides with AltStore PAL adding three fediverse-focused apps to its store and follows its launch enabled by new digital market regulations in Europe and Japan.
The main topics covered are: AltStore PAL's fediverse integration, its goals for app discoverability, and its expansion driven by regulatory changes.
AltStore PAL, the alternative iOS app store available in the European Union and Japan, is joining the social web. In a post on Wednesday, AltStore PAL announced that users across Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky can now interact with apps that developers choose to federate on its explore.alt.store website.
Alternative app store AltStore PAL is joining the fediverse
You can now interact with AltStore PAL apps from across Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon.
You can now interact with AltStore PAL apps from across Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon.
Any likes from the social web will appear on AltStore PAL, according to creator Riley Testut, who shared last October that “you’ll be able to comment on an app on Mastodon, like a news update on Threads, then open AltStore and view all these same interactions in-app.” Users can also now sign into the AltStore PAL with their Mastodon or Bluesky accounts.
“Our aim with adding fediverse features to AltStore is to improve the discoverability of apps by making them shareable on the social web,” Testut tells The Verge. “In the future, we’d love for apps to have native support within ActivityPub and become a standard ActivityPub object like notes and articles, allowing them to appear like any other item in your feed.”
AltStore PAL launched in the EU in 2024 after Apple began complying with the region’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which requires the company to allow users to download third-party app stores. It later arrived in Japan after the country implemented similar laws, and it’s coming to Australia, Brazil, and the UK, too.
Along with this update, AltStore PAL is adding three fediverse-friendly apps to its store. That includes the open-source short-form video platform Loops, the video-sharing app PeerTube, and the Mastodon client iPhanpy. You can access these new apps from the store’s redesigned Sources page, which now features collections of apps in categories like “popular,” “indie gems,” and “fediverse favorites.”
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