Meta wants to allow its users in the European Union to download apps through Facebook ads. With this new feature, Meta would become a direct competitor to Google and Apple, which for years have held the duopoly of app downloads with Play Store and App Store, respectively.
According to The Verge, apps will be downloadable through a new type of ad that will start to be tested with Android app developers from the end of 2023. In this way, Meta would leave aside iOS apps (at least for the time being) and focus on Android apps, which already allow sideloading (in-app downloads), although it is necessary to have a license with Google and pay commissions for each in-app purchase.
But all this will change in 2024. The European Union’s new Digital Markets Act, which considers Apple and Google the “gatekeepers” of the Internet and requires them to open their mobile platforms to alternative app distribution methods, will come into force in the spring of next year.
With Meta hosting the Android apps and allowing Facebook users to download them without having to go through the Play Store, Meta offers developers a way to get better conversion rates from their app install ads. In addition, Meta will not charge any commissions to developers, who will be able to set up any billing system they want in their apps.
The new European law has opened the doors to everyone, and other technology companies also want to distribute apps on their own. This is the case of Microsoft, which announced in March that it intends to create its own mobile app store.
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