Summary
- Play Store may notify you when apps you downloaded are no longer receiving updates.
- That alert would make cleaning out unused or abandoned apps much easier than today.
- Feature found in an APK teardown; not guaranteed until a beta, and its scope is unclear.
The Google Play Store could be getting a major update soon that will make managing your app downloads so much easier. Based on code found in an APK teardown of the Play Store's latest version, it appears Google could add a new notification system that will alert you about any dead apps that you've downloaded that are no longer receiving updates.
Cleaning house may become a lot easier
Google really should have added this sooner
With approximately 2 million apps available on the Google Play Store, it's unrealistic to think that all the apps you download will continue to work and receive updates over the years. Additionally, as developers work on apps or sell them to other companies, there might be changes that Google finds unsatisfactory, which could lead those apps to be removed from the app store entirely. That's not ideal, especially for users who get accustomed to using the apps they love.
The unfortunate truth of all of this, though, is that up until now, Google has never really allowed you an easy way to see what apps are and aren't available on the store anymore, or which ones will continue to receive updates. However, that could change based on code found by AssembleDebug and the folks at Android Authority. Based on a new report, there are strings of code in v51.4.19 that suggest new notifications may be in the works that automatically update you when an app that you have downloaded is no longer set to receive future updates. This could make it easier to clean up apps you never use on your Samsung or other Android devices.
Now, whether Google will expand it to include apps that have been removed for one reason or another is still unclear. Considering many of us have our own lists of go-to apps to download first on a new Android phone, knowing which of those won't continue getting updates could help you prepare ahead of time, instead of going to download them and then finding out after the fact.
Building out the Play Store's notifications
This feature could join alerts about potentially harmful apps
As it stands, the only kind of feature like this that the Play Store offers right now are alerts from Play Protect, which will warn you if an app you've downloaded is considered potentially harmful. While useful for helping you catch potential malware or adware, it doesn't give you any warning about apps that are no longer receiving updates.
Yes, you could check that yourself, but going to the app page for every app that you've ever downloaded would take far more work than it's worth. Which is why it's honestly surprising Google has taken so long to add anything like this. Unfortunately, as with most APK teardowns like this, we won't know if Google plans to go through with the addition until it actually hits a beta version and we see it in action. For now, though, we can at least be excited about the potential help we could receive when managing our app downloads going forward.