Meta is planning to let people in the EU download apps through Facebook

Sorry, but whenever I see Meta's logo I just think "blue balls."

What even happened to Farmville and all those apps that used to run through Facebook?

So it's epic games store saga all over again? It won't get any better with an even more controversial company.

More competition is good, but Facebook isn't exactly my first choice to trust as an app provider - I'd rather have Microsoft. Maybe they'd even add some sort of Game Pass experience.

I would never use it, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea. On the other other hand, I think most people would be confused if they had to use multiple app stores with some apps being exclusive to one of them.

So, this mostly seems like a way to promote adware apps, like those silly casual games that all look the same.

I like the increase in competition, but my concern is for the 90+% of users who really don't know what they're doing. Can we be sure that all these alternative app stores will properly enforce security through their apps? At least the iOS app store and Google Play have some standards regarding apps that are actual malware, but could we trust every company to do this?

The "anti-consumer" approach of restricting apps that violate standards may very well be the best one for most people. I support the DMA and the right to sideload but I'm concerned about the impact it will have. Maybe we'll go back to the early 2000s days of PC malware.

Maybe it's actually not that bad an idea. I'm pretty curious to see how this turns out on iOS specifically.