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Altstore

A home for apps that push the boundaries on iOS

#1 Product of the DaySeptember 29, 2019
AltStore is an alternative app store for non-jailbroken devices. Unlike other unofficial app stores today, AltStore does not rely on enterprise certificates, which Apple has been cracking down on more and more recently.
Alternative iOS app store brings emulators and more to iPhone without a jailbreakIt's been three years since I first covered Delta, which brought near-flawless emulation of NES, SNES, and Game Boy games to iPhone. In the years since, developer Riley Testut has continued to work on the emulator, adding support for N64 games and, most recently, DS games as well.
AltStore is an iOS App Store alternative that doesn't require a jailbreak, here's how to use it - 9to5MacApple has some strict rules about what can be published on its App Store. iPhone and iPad users can't install apps like console emulators, Torrent clients, and more. Some workarounds eventually appear on the web, but they usually require a jailbroken device. This not the case with AltStore.
Alternative iOS app store doesn't require a jailbreakAltStore works by fooling your device into believing that you're a developer sideloading test apps. It uses an app on your Mac or Windows PC to re-sign apps every seven days, using iTunes' WiFi syncing framework to reinstall them on your device before they expire.
AltStore is an alternative iOS App Store with a built-in Nintendo emulatorRiley Testut, an iOS app developer who has for years worked on mobile video game emulation, just released a project that has the potential to shake up the entire iOS ecosystem. He calls it AltStore, and it's an alternative to Apple's App Store.
Discussion
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1 Review5.0/5
Amrith Shanbhag
Amrith Shanbhag
Hunter
I've been testing the beta of this for the last few days and now I am finally reliving my childhood by being able to play my favorite Gameboy games on my phone ❤️ Thanks for making this @rileytestut 🙏
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Josselin Colletta
Josselin Colletta
Impressive technically, yet be careful as it asks for your Apple IDs, maybe use a secondary one.
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Rek
Rek
@josselinco An Apple ID is required to sign the apps, meaning that apple can't unsign them (as its a "developer" certificate). It's basically a direct IPA store. This is completely different than tweakbox and other alt app stores, as they rely on already existing certificates only hosted on apple's servers (meaning they can unsign them on every phone). This is also why apps only last 7 days before it has to resign itself. If you're worried about your password being compromised, I would suggest using an app password which you can generate on appleid.apple.com edit: they have a semi-hidden FAQ page which I found on their twitter (@altstoreio) https://altstore.io/faq/
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Justin Rockmore
Justin Rockmore
Looks cool - Would love to see some of the "boundary pushing" apps on your website before I have to: Download a file to my computer...plug in my phone...and then download that file to my phone too
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Brendan Hersh
Brendan Hersh
@justin_rockmore +1. Would also love to see more privacy information before installing, like why we have to use a special installer and the effects it could have on our phones. Seems like a cool idea, though!
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Justin Rockmore
Justin Rockmore
@bdn Yeah I definitely agree with you - this idea seems great, but oddly sketchy given the lack of website info and the fact that it apparently (according to others) asks for my AppleID + Password...
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Aleksander Skjoelsvik
Aleksander Skjoelsvik
This is pretty cool, but something tells me it isn't gonna stay around for long...
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Tony Tabor
Tony Tabor
Where are the games?
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Stephen Leung
Stephen Leung
@tt122x With your iPhone, go to www.downloadroms.io and choose a game you want to download on your device. Save the game file in the "Files". Then open the "Files" app and select the game file, then hit "Share" and then choose "More". Then find the button "Copy to Delta". And then voila! I'm playing Pokemon lol
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