Here are five of the biggest myths and why they’re wrong.
Myth 1: All third-party app stores contain viruses
Android users usually download their apps from the Google Play Store. However, there are also good reasons to use alternative app stores: for example, because an app is no longer available on Google or is only available in a version that isn’t supported by your mobile device.
Sometimes, Android phone owners are blocked from accessing the Google Play Store for political reasons, making them heavily reliant on APK files from alternative sources. However, third-party stores are often assumed to be full of apps that contain malware.
Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry
However, this is only partly true. Whilst there are undoubtedly dubious sources out there, there are also numerous alternative app stores that place great emphasis on security.
Probably the best-known alternative app store is F-Droid. It offers only free apps available under open-source licences, with installers generated directly from the F-Droid server. All apps are therefore signed by F-Droid, which is intended to guarantee their security.
Aptoide, on the other hand, also features applications that are not open-source, as well as paid apps. Aptoide describes itself as ‘community-oriented’: this means that any user can create and manage their own app store and upload their own apps to it. Aptoide acts as a package manager, which also scans all the apps on offer for viruses.
