5 Risks Of Installing Apps From Third-Party Android App Stores

One reason that Google and Apple run their own app stores is so that users have a secure source to download apps. Even though malware software can get into official apps, the Google Play Store and Apple App Store give customers more peace of mind than uncertain websites, and app stores. One concern might be — what will the developer do with all your data? Or, the amount of permissions they might ask for on your smartphone. Even the possibility of billing you for unauthorized purchases.

While Android has always offered users more freedom to customize, and download largely what they want on their smartphones, it's not recommended to rely on third-party app stores, especially unknown ones. A trusted brand store, like Samsung or Epic Games, is fine, but smaller, unknown stores are more risky. If the app isn't available through a first-party method, like the Google Play Store, it's wise to try and discover why.

Some developers might just not want to pay commission to Google and Apple, but others may be unavailable at the more prominent stores due to one of the concerns listed below. Here are five risks of installing apps from third-party Android app stores.

Over the years, Apple and Google have given users more control over their own data by offering them privacy features, tracking settings, and a choice of what data to share with an app.

With first-party app stores every developer needs to comply with these rules, and even if they ask for everything they can from your smartphone, at least you're aware of what they're collecting. However, when users download apps from other unknown sources, the developers don't need to comply with such rules, and you stay in the dark about what they might collect. That could include personal contact lists, real-time GPS location histories, photos from your gallery, personal messages, and more.

This way, a simple photo editor app or a silly game could be collecting an immense amount of data from you. The goal may be to create a shadow advertising profile of you, but it could even be as serious as identity theft. 

The Android operating system relies on a granular permission framework to restrict how apps can interact with sensitive hardware features like your camera, and microphone, or critical system controls like Accessibility Services. This helps Google to prevent malicious apps from gaining access to your device's interface, reading text displayed on the screen, capturing a two-factor authentication code, or even performing touch inputs without your knowledge. 

Unverified and malicious apps from third-party app stores can request far more access than their basic features require, and rather than just collecting your data, the issue is how easily they can control your device. 

Official app stores significantly reduce this risk, but customers should still periodically take a look at what permissions each app is using to be safe. It's common that users don't remember having offered such extensive permissions to some apps. In those instances it's best to remove the permission or even delete the app. After all, why would a random game need access to your camera and microphone?

Installing an app from an unofficial app store could also increase the risk of your device becoming infected by malware. This hostile software might be a trojan horse mimicking a banking app, intrusive spyware silently getting your information, or destructive ransomware. Apps from unverified sources are one of the most common vectors for mobile malware infections.

Malicious actors usually take legitimate software, but modify the source code to insert harmful background scripts, and re-upload these compromised versions to external sites disguised as free or premium apps. For users, there's really no reason to download a "special" version of Instagram from an unofficial app store, plus it's a lot easier to get the Instagram app directly from the Google Play Store. 

When developers submit an app for review with the Google Play Store, the app will undergo code analysis to detect known malware strains, suspicious behavior patterns, or hidden code before being made available for public download. This rigorous process blocks the vast majority of malicious programs, but official platforms aren't foolproof, and sophisticated attackers can occasionally bypass the initial automated review.

When you download an app from an unofficial third-party app store or from a web page, you lose out on standard update pipelines. After all, unofficial platforms rarely provide automatic update mechanisms. This could leave you with outdated software long after a critical security vulnerability has been patched elsewhere. Even if you download a legitimate app that works as intended and doesn't steal your data, you might still suffer from a lack of updates.

By running outdated software – not only apps, but major Android software updates as well – you can become an easy target for an attacker that might try to take advantage of well-documented flaws in older code bases to gain unauthorized access to your smartphone.

When you download an app from an official app store, like the Google Play Store, you can get automated updates as the system itself keeps looking for them. With that, whenever a new version hits the store, it won't take more than a few days for your device to get the updated build, which can include not only new features, but important security updates. 

Last but not least, one of the greatest risks of downloading apps from unofficial sources is that you might suffer from unauthorized billing and financial scams. While it's important to note that even through official channels it is possible that inattentive customers can sign up to abusive weekly or monthly subscriptions, the issue can get out of hand when you don't have a proper channel to ask for reimbursements or to properly cancel the subscription.

Malicious apps can also exploit system permissions to silently send hidden premium-rate SMS messages. With these risks in mind, it's better to download apps from official stores, and to avoid suspicious apps, like those that claim to reveal who doesn't follow you on Instagram, or a rip-off version of a premium app, and so on.

When you download apps through official stores, you get all the proper support from Google, as it monitors developer transaction behavior to identify and remove predatory financial software, and even offers a more straightforward way to cancel a subscription or ask for a reimbursement if you didn't mean to subscribe to an app and only wanted to use a feature once.