OnePlus, Samsung say they were restricted from including Fortnite in app stores | Epic vs Google

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The antitrust jury trial between Epic Games and Google rumbles on, with much of Monday's proceedings focused on the agreements between Google and other phone manufacturers as to which apps they can include on their smart devices.

According to The Verge, the court was told that Chinese tech firm OnePlus required permission from Google to pre-install Fortnite on its phones – which Google is said to have denied.

James Kolotouros, VP of Android platform partnerships, confirmed that OnePlus needed a waiver from Google to add Fortnite to its devices, and that the only other option was to give up its Premier revenue share.

Google later insisted that OnePlus made its own choice not to pre-install Fortnite, with an internal Google email revealing a request from OnePlus execs showed it the decision was made in order to maintain "sustainable long-term growth."

The company added that 95% of Android phones in the US are not part of the Premier revenue share tier, and therefore able to pre-load apps from a non-Google marketplace if the manufacturer chooses.

Later in the day, the discussion moved to Samsung and Google's relationship, with a message from the latter expressing concerns over being able to install Fortnite on a Samsung Note 8 without being warned it came from 'Unknown Sources.'

Epic previously complained during the trial that non-Google Play apps face too many 'unknown sources' warnings when directly installed on Android, even when the app in question is as popular and established as the battle royale game.

"We really need to understand what's going on (and I think DJ should, too)," the Google message to Samsung read, referencing Samsung