AltStore PAL has made a significant move by announcing its support for the fediverse, an open social web built on ActivityPub, by launching its own Mastodon server, becoming the first federated app marketplace.
This integration enables app developers to share news and updates that appear across various platforms such as Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky, marking a shift towards decentralized communication within the iOS app ecosystem.
The AltStore PAL server is intended for developers to post news, updates, and alerts that will federate across the open social web. This allows users to interact with these posts from different platforms, and their interactions will also be visible within the AltStore PAL app.
Users have the ability to sign in with their Mastodon or Bluesky accounts to like apps, updates, and alerts. As explained by AltStore PAL co-founder Riley Testut to TechCrunch, “You could follow the source from our Mastodon server, and then, in your timeline, you would see when there was an app update.”
At launch, participating apps include Loops, PeerTube, and iPhanpy, with larger apps planning to join later after Apple finalizes changes to its commission structure in the EU.
Apple is undertaking changes to its commission structure due to regulatory pushback, replacing its Core Technology Fee with a Core Technology Commission to address potential liability issues related to payments.
Users can access the server at fosstodon.org/@altstore and discover apps and sources on the explore page at explore.alt.store.
