Google circumvented the law to bring Stadia to iOS without going through the App Store

Bringing the cloud gaming service Stadia to the iOS platform is really a difficult problem for Google. Although Stadia has an official app on the App Store, you won’t be able to play titles on the app the way Google wants it to be, through the cloud. Instead, users are forced to download these games to play them.

Google’s cloud gaming service is actually being brought to iOS devices for the first time, through a third app, the Stadium browser. The app was later removed by Apple because it violated some App Store policies.

Now, Google has found another way to circumvent the law and bring Stadia to iOS without going through the App Store. Google has announced plans to develop a web app, allowing iOS users to play games on Stadia without downloading any apps.

According to Apple rules: “Games provided as an online game subscription must be downloaded directly from the App Store”. However, if Stadia can be played from a web app, users don’t need to download the game to play it on their device. Instead, users simply access the Stadia web app from any browser on iOS.

With this new move, Google will also be able to avoid the 30% commission that is due to the App Store, when users sign up for a Stadia subscription. That would certainly piss Apple off, and could set a precedent for other developers to follow.

Google says a public test version of the Stadia web app will roll out in the coming weeks. Let’s wait and see what action Apple will make before Google’s new legal trick.

Reference: Phonearena