Alternative app stores and what they change

Before the Digital Markets Act, the choice “where does an app come from” was not a choice.

It was Apple’s App Store, or nothing.

Since 2024, an iPhone in the EU can install an app from a third-party marketplace, and download some apps directly from a developer’s website [source: apple-alt-app-distribution] [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions].

This page is about what that change has done to parental controls on a child’s device, and how to keep those controls intact.

It is not a tutorial on how to install an app from another source.

Editorial scope. This article describes the landscape and the protection. It does not describe how to enable alternative distribution. It does not describe how to install an app from outside the App Store or Play Store. The protection steps in this article are the parent-facing configuration. The corresponding installer steps are documented by Apple and Google, not here.

Why this matters

For most of the App Store’s history, App Store review was the gate that kept a child account’s app list finite and reviewable.

When a child could install any app from any reviewed marketplace, the parent still saw what was installed.

The gate was one gate, in one place.

Alternative distribution changes three things at once. The combination is what makes it worth treating as its own topic:

1. The marketplace is no longer a single point of review. Each alternative marketplace has its own terms, review policy, and dispute route. The parents who cared about that review now have several review regimes to learn [source: apple-alt-app-distribution].

2. The Screen Time settings do not all extend.

   Apple states that for purchases made through alternative marketplaces or direct web distribution, Ask to Buy, Family purchase sharing, and Screen Time restrictions on in-app purchases do not apply [source: apple-alt-app-distribution] [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions].

3. The Screen Time report does not include what came in through alternative channels.

   Apps installed through alternative marketplaces do not appear under App Store purchase tracking.

   The absence of an entry in the report is not evidence of an absence of installs [source: apple-parental-controls].

The first point is a structural change to the software ecosystem. The second and third are reasons the family-side configuration has to be configured deliberately, with eyes open.

Outside the EU, the third-party marketplace toggle is not present.

An iPhone sold in Switzerland, the UK, the US, or Australia runs the same Screen Time build. The alternative-app-marketplace section simply does not appear [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions]. The configuration below is not applicable to those devices.

Prerequisites

A few things need to be true before the steps in this article are useful. None of them is a setting on the device itself.

• The device is set up under Family Sharing, with the parent as the family organizer. Screen Time on a child Apple Account inherits its configuration from the organiser’s view [source: apple-region-rules].

• Content & Privacy Restrictions are enabled. Without this container, the alternative-marketplace setting under it has no effect. The exact entry is apple.screentime.content_privacy_restrictions in the wiki’s UI-string resource.

• You are aware of what the configuration cannot do. Apple documents three exceptions, and the parent should know them before assuming any of the toggles guarantee coverage. They are listed under “What this configuration does not do” below.

• You have decided whether you want to allow or restrict alternative marketplaces at all.

  The default on a fresh EU-resident child Apple Account is allowed.

  Reason: Screen Time’s Content & Privacy Restrictions do not re-close alternative marketplace toggles after a major iOS update unless the parent re-opens the section and explicitly sets it to “Don’t Allow” [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions].

  An iOS update can re-open the switch.

• A calendar entry for the next iOS major release.

  Apple re-examines the alternative-distribution defaults at every major iOS release.

  Re-checking this article’s configuration after each major release is part of keeping the rule [source: apple-alt-app-distribution].

If any of these is missing, run that step first; the configuration in the next section assumes all of them.

Steps — restrict alternative app marketplaces on iOS, EU

The configuration lives inside Content & Privacy Restrictions.

Content & Privacy Restrictions is itself inside Screen Time. Both are part of Apple’s first-party control surface.

They are documented by Apple [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions] [source: apple-parental-controls].

1. Open the Screen Time container. The screen reference is apple.screentime.root. This is the same entry a parent uses for any other Screen Time configuration.

2. Turn on Content & Privacy Restrictions. The screen reference is apple.screentime.content_privacy_restrictions. If this is off, the alternative-marketplace toggle has no effect.

3. Open the App Installations & Purchases group. Inside the Content & Privacy Restrictions screen, this is the group that controls what can be installed, including outside the App Store.

4. Set App Marketplaces to “Don’t Allow”.

   The screen reference is apple.screentime.content_privacy_restrictions.marketplaces.

   Apple’s documentation: “With the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, and macOS, alternative app marketplaces are an option in the EU…”

   And: “You can help ensure you only install apps from the App Store by going to Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → App Installations & Purchases, and set the App Marketplaces option to Don’t Allow”. The ui_strings_ref (see glossary) entry for the path is apple.screentime.content_privacy_restrictions.marketplaces.

   [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions].

5. Set Web (direct developer distribution) to “Don’t Allow”. This is the second control in the same group. The screen reference is again apple.screentime.content_privacy_restrictions.marketplaces — the Web row is a sibling of App Marketplaces inside the same App Installations & Purchases group, not a separate container.

6. Confirm the switch is still closed after a major iOS update. iOS updates can re-open the App Marketplaces toggle.

   The check after each iOS major release is documented as a separate category in the same source [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions].

7. Re-check this configuration with the next birthday.

   The configuration can be re-opened by anyone with the Screen Time passcode, including the child, if the passcode is shared or observed.

   The article on making settings stick walks through how to keep the passcode out of reach [source: apple-region-rules] [source: consumer-ftc-parental-controls].

   The age-band information is in accounts-age-limits-and-birthdays.

   An under-13 in most EU member states cannot stop Family Sharing without the organiser’s involvement.

For Android, the configuration path sits in Google Play’s settings under the Play Store’s own parental-control surface. The wiki maintains a separate Play-store settings article; this article focuses on the iOS / Screen Time path because the DMA’s effect on iOS is the structural change parents ask about most.

Steps — recognise that an alternative marketplace is in use

The configuration in the previous section prevents new installations. It does not retroactively remove what is already there. A child account may already have an alternative marketplace installed through a configuration that ran before the parent enabled Content & Privacy Restrictions, or before the parent disabled the App Marketplaces toggle after a major iOS update [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions].

Three observable signs an alternative marketplace is in use, none of which requires jailbreaking or sideloading the device:

1. A storefront icon that is not the App Store and not Google Play. The category in the trick data set lists Epic Games Store, AltStore, and Mobivention as named examples observed on EU iOS devices under iOS 26 [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions].
2. A “trust this developer” prompt when an app is installed from a developer’s website. Safari surfaces the prompt; the parent gets no notification unless they are looking at the device at the moment of install [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions].
3. An app that is not visible in the App Store purchase history. The Screen Time report’s purchase list only contains App Store and Apple In-App Purchase entries. An app that came in via an alternative marketplace will not appear there [source: apple-parental-controls].

If any of the three is present, the configuration in the previous section will stop further installs. It will not remove the existing app.

Removing it requires the parent to delete the app from the device. The Deleting Apps toggle under Content & Privacy Restrictions can also restrict that.

What this configuration does not do

Several statements are commonly associated with “alternative app stores” that the configuration above does not accomplish:

• It does not retroactively remove a previously installed marketplace. The configuration gates future installations. An alternative marketplace installed before the toggle was set to “Don’t Allow” remains on the device until it is uninstalled by hand.

• It does not extend Ask to Buy to alternative-marketplace purchases. Apple states explicitly that Ask to Buy does not apply to purchases outside the App Store and Apple In-App Purchase path [source: apple-alt-app-distribution].

• It does not extend Family purchase sharing to alternative-marketplace purchases. The same source is explicit on this point [source: apple-alt-app-distribution].

• It does not extend Screen Time in-app-purchase restrictions to alternative-marketplace apps.

  Screen Time can restrict in-app purchases on App Store apps. It cannot do the same for apps installed through an alternative marketplace or a developer’s website [source: apple-alt-app-distribution] [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions].

• It does not appear on devices sold outside the EU.

  The App Marketplaces row in Content & Privacy Restrictions is a function of the device’s sales region, not of the Apple Account region.

  An iPhone bought in Switzerland cannot install alternative marketplaces even if the Apple Account is moved to an EU country later [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions].

• It does not survive a forgotten Screen Time passcode.

  The passcode is the lock that holds the configuration. If the passcode is forgotten, Apple documents a recovery path that uses the Apple Account credentials.

  Whoever owns the credentials can re-set the passcode and re-open the toggle [source: apple-region-rules].

  The passcode management article walks through how to keep the credentials off the child’s device.

• It does not evaluate the apps in alternative marketplaces for parental-control side effects.

  Screen Time is the gate, not the App Store review. Review-side differences belong to the marketplace. The configuration in this article is the parent-side closure.

The single sentence version: the configuration is a route gate, not a content gate.

What parents tend to ask about this

A few recurring questions and where the parent-facing answer is sourced.

• “Is this safe?”

  The structural change is real. So is the existence of a parent-side closure.

  The configuration in this article is the documented answer for an iOS device in the EU under Family Sharing.

  There is no third-party app that adds coverage that Screen Time does not already provide for this particular switch [source: apple-region-rules].

• “Will it stay closed after the next iOS update?”

  Not automatically. Apple documents that Content & Privacy Restrictions can be returned to default after a major update [source: apple-parental-controls].

  Re-checking the configuration after each iOS major release is documented in the same source.

• “Does Google Play have the same setting?”

  Google’s Play Store does not currently operate an alternative-marketplace pathway.

  The DMA-driven change in 2024 was to iOS in the EU. Android phones already had side-loading outside the Play Store before the DMA.

  The corresponding parent-side control on Android is Google Family Link’s Allow installation from unknown sources toggle, which lives in Family Link under the Google Play settings.

  That is covered by the Family Link article, not here.

• “What if my child is below the local age threshold?”

  A child who cannot stop Family Sharing on their own cannot, by the same logic, change their own content and privacy restrictions without the passcode.

  But they can still install a marketplace if the toggle is open.

  The configuration above closes that route at the same level as the rest of the Content & Privacy Restrictions are enforced.

  The age-floor article (accounts-age-limits-and-birthdays) lists the per-country thresholds.

What this article does not tell you

A few things that are deliberately out of scope for this page, with the link to the article that does cover them.

• It does not cover Android side-loading in general. Android has its own sideloading pathway. The Family Link control is documented separately.

• It does not cover per-marketplace terms of service. Each marketplace has its own review policy, dispute route, and data handling. That is the marketplace’s product page, not this wiki.

• It does not cover the EU DMA itself.

  The DMA is the legal reason the toggle exists. The parent-facing configuration is what this article is about.

• It does not cover what happens to data collected by apps installed through alternative marketplaces.

  That topic is covered under What a child’s account actually holds.

Talking about it

A child who finds an alternative marketplace icon on their device will not, by default, understand what it is.

Three short habits help.

• Name what the icon does. A marketplace is a way to install apps. It is not an app itself. The apps it offers are not reviewed by Apple. The marketplace’s review policy is the marketplace’s own [source: apple-alt-app-distribution].

• Name what the configuration does not do. This article’s Steps section makes it explicit. A child who knows that alternative-marketplace purchases do not flow through Ask to Buy will not mistake a Yes for a no.

• Re-decide at the next birthday, not just at the next iOS update.

  The configuration in this article changes shape at the next iOS major release and at the next Family Sharing re-config.

  The age-band configuration in the birthday article changes shape at the next birthday.

  The two are independent. Both belong on the family’s review list [source: consumer-ftc-parental-controls].

The point of closing the App Marketplaces toggle is not to forbid the child’s software use. It is to keep the parent-side review of that use intact.

The closing is a route choice, not a verdict.

Sources

• apple-alt-app-distribution — Apple Support, “About alternative app distribution” (support.apple.com/118110). The DMA-driven availability, the purchase-flow exclusions, and the platform statement that Screen Time and parental controls continue to function for alternatively distributed apps [source: apple-alt-app-distribution].
• apple-alt-app-restrictions — Apple Support, “How to help ensure you only install apps from the App Store instead of alternative app distribution” (support.apple.com/118128). The parent-facing restriction path, the App Marketplaces and Web toggles, the iOS-major-update re-check, and the Address hiding category on the App Store-equivalent lists [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions].
• apple-parental-controls — Apple Support, “Use parental controls to manage your child’s iPhone or iPad”. The Screen Time / Content & Privacy Restrictions container structure and the post-update re-check requirement [source: apple-parental-controls].
• apple-region-rules — Apple Support, “Region-specific rules for managing an Apple Account”. The per-country age thresholds that govern when a child can stop Family Sharing on their own, and the Apple-Account recovery path that resets the Screen Time passcode [source: apple-region-rules].
• euconsent-gdpr-art8 — GDPR Article 8. The legal basis for the per-country age of digital consent between 13 and 16 that determines which children can stop Family Sharing on their own [source: euconsent-gdpr-art8].
• consumer-ftc-parental-controls — U.S. Federal Trade Commission, parental-controls consumer guidance. The one-layer-of-protection framing and the periodic- re-review recommendation [source: consumer-ftc-parental-controls].

[source: apple-alt-app-distribution] [source: apple-alt-app-restrictions] [source: apple-parental-controls] [source: apple-region-rules] [source: euconsent-gdpr-art8] [source: consumer-ftc-parental-controls]