The DMA will come into force in a few days (March 7) and companies are already trying to adapt to this new regulation. That or a fine. Apple has undoubtedly attracted the most attention when it comes to what DMA means for stores, payments and third-party systems, but Google also has work to do and has recently announced a number of measures coming soon. will come into force soon, highlighting the possibility of linking to external sites within apps to promote offers.

Third-party stores: check. Unlike Apple, Google/Android hasn’t had any issues with third-party stores. Since its inception, Android has allowed apps to be installed from any store and/or source, whether it is the official website (like WhatsApp), an APK repository (like APKMirror), or an alternative store (like UpToDown). In this sense, Google is covered.

Alternative payments. Billing was another problem. Remember when Fortnite disappeared from the Google Play Store? He did this because he was using his own payment system and it was against the store’s rules. However, Google has been chosen as a gatekeeper and the DMA requires these companies to allow developers to use third-party payment systems. Google is covered again.

UCB. It stands for User Selective Billing and allows developers to put their own billing systems alongside Google Play. “This is the fairest way to offer alternative billing because it gives the user full control over their preferred transaction method,” explain Google, coincidentally confirming that the feature will also be coming to games this week. Additionally, thanks to a special program in the European Economic Area, some eligible developers can only offer the alternative system.

And now the links. The big news comes from connections. As Google reported, “Starting March 6, we will launch a program that will allow developers of apps distributed on Google Play to directly target EEA users outside of the app, including by promoting offers.” For example, let’s consider an audiobook app that connects you to its website to buy a cheaper file without having to go through the Google payment gateway.

Google warns: some things will change. The DMA will cause great excitement in the tech world and the European Union, but Google wanted to offer a small caveat: “Many of the new rules involve difficult trade-offs that will affect the people and companies that use our products.” They also confirm the following:

“For example, changes to our search results could send more traffic to large intermediaries and aggregators and less traffic to direct providers such as hotels, airlines, merchants and restaurants. For consumers, some of the features we’ve built to help people search include making recommendations about different products Doing things like online quickly and securely will no longer work the same way.

Pictures | Xataka

in Xataka | Google lost the AI ​​war a decade ago. And the problem is it can’t save the floor