The Google Play Store could open to third parties in 14 days

Following its lengthy legal battle with Epic, the Google Play Store is poised for a significant change. If everything goes as planned, it could really alter the landscape for Google and developers. Just to get an idea of just how big of deal this is, these could be some of the biggest changes that we’ve seen happen to the Play Store since its inception.

Naturally, not everything is going to happen overnight, but The Verge reports that at least some of these changes will need to be made within 14 days, according to court documents. As you can imagine, Google isn’t really too keen on moving things forward, and has requested an administrative stay in order to ensure that everything can be done safely.

Big changes could be coming soon

As far as what we’re looking at here, according to the court document, this will impact over 100 million Play Store users in the US alone, along with over 500,000 developers. Google shares that because of this impending change, there are “substantial risks” for users and developers and that it could “jeopardize the entire Android ecosystem.”

Google’s head of security also brings up privacy and security concerns when updates like this are “rushed.” Again, the court doesn’t order Google to make all the changes necessary all at once. But instead, the court document shares that some will need to be completed in a matter of weeks, while others several months down the line.

Up until now, a lot of control was in Google’s hands, whether it was how apps were distributed, payments, billing, etc. But this could all change in a big way, allowing third-party developers to take more control over every single process. And as you can imagine, this leaves Google out of those processes, which means it won’t be able to take its cut like it has been since the Play Store’s inception.

Is this change dangerous, or is Google just dragging its feet?

As far as how things could look in the end, well, it would effectively level the playing field for anyone looking to sell apps or services on Android. Google would need to stop forcing apps to use Google Play Billing, giving developers the freedom of choice about how they would take payments. In addition, developers will have the ability to direct customers to new platforms, and the Play Store could even host these.

It’s also important to note that Google would no longer be able to give apps a leg up, just because they are preinstalled or provided exclusively to the Play Store. Sure, rolling out new changes to millions of users is a huge pain, and there are risks involved, but if Google is eager to see it through, there’s a pretty good chance that it can be done safely.

Again, it’s unclear here just how much of a risk there really is or if this is just Google dragging its feet. While we’d love to see what happens, we’ll have to wait until next week to see whether the court will honor Google’s administrative stay that it has requested. But if all of this goes through, there’s a pretty good chance the Google Play Store could look and act quite differently within a few weeks’ time.