Amazon stamps out its App Store for Android

Amazon is discontinuing the operation of its App Store for Android. The online retailer has announced this on its support pages and in emails to developers. As of February 20, new apps can no longer be published in the Amazon Appstore for Android systems.

Security updates for existing apps can still be distributed via the store until August 20, 2025. According to Amazon, it can no longer be guaranteed that apps installed via the Appstore will remain functional and secure after this date. Anyone who has installed apps via the Amazon Appstore should therefore replace them with versions from other sources.

Amazon as an alternative to Google

The Amazon Appstore is one of the few alternative app stores for Google's Android mobile operating system. Because the installation of these alternative app stores is cumbersome and comes with several warnings, they are mainly used by advanced Android users who do not want to use the official Play Store. Compared to open source offerings such as F-Droid, however, Amazon was not very attractive as a Google alternative for Android users concerned about data protection.

Amazon has not given a reason why the App Store is now being discontinued. It is quite possible that the operation is simply no longer worthwhile. Amazon originally launched the App Store to supply its Android-based Fire Phones with applications. However, the Fire Phones were never able to establish themselves. However, Amazon still sells Fire tablets today. According to the US company, the Amazon Appstore will remain available there. Users should also be able to continue to obtain their apps on Fire TV devices via the company's own App Store.

Microsoft has worked with Amazon in the meantime to bring Android apps to Windows PCs via the Amazon Appstore. However, the project was short-lived and was discontinued last year when the Amazon Appstore was removed from the Windows Store.

(dahe)