AltStore PAL: Your Gateway to the Fediverse

AltStore PAL Expands to the Social Web

AltStore PAL, the popular alternative iOS app store in the European Union and Japan, has made a significant move towards integrating with the social web. As announced recently, users on Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky can now engage with selected apps on the explore.alt.store website.

According to creator Riley Testut, interactions such as likes from these social platforms will be reflected on AltStore PAL. Testut envisions a seamless experience where users can comment on apps on Mastodon, like updates on Threads, and see all these interactions within the AltStore app itself. Additionally, users can now log in to AltStore PAL using their Mastodon or Bluesky accounts.

Testut explains, “Our goal with integrating fediverse features into AltStore is to enhance the visibility of apps by enabling easy sharing on the social web. Looking ahead, we hope to see apps natively support ActivityPub, becoming a standard ActivityPub object like notes and articles, seamlessly integrating into users’ feeds.”

In addition to these developments, AltStore PAL is introducing three fediverse-friendly apps to its platform. These include Loops, a short-form video platform, PeerTube for video-sharing, and iPhanpy, a Mastodon client. The Sources page on the store has been revamped to showcase these new additions, featuring app collections categorized as “popular,” “indie gems,” and “fediverse favorites.”