What you need to know
- Google detailed its recent Play Store and Play Services updates, which involves the retirement of a feature: Share apps.
- The changelog states users will no longer be able to share apps with friends and family, which leveraged its Nearby Share protocol.
- The company introduced “Share apps” in the Play Store in 2021 as a simplified version of Android’s Nearby Share.
- Google also rebranded Nearby Share to “Quick Share” earlier in 2024, positioning it as a potential competitor to Apple AirDrop.
Google is beginning to roll out its latest System update, but its changelog bids farewell to a three-year-old feature.
The company’s December updates for the Play Store continue as a support document outlines the arrival of version 44.1. A notable change in the patch notes is an update for phones stating that “The Share apps feature on Google Play will be retiring.”
The feature was limited to “free and publicly available” apps on the Play Store for Android users. Previously, users could access it by going into the Play Store > Profile icon > Manage apps & devices. The “Share apps” feature was located below the sync apps option, allowing users to choose whether they wanted to send or receive an app.
With the rollout of Play Store v44.1, this feature will soon be removed. The only alternative to sending an app will be to share its link directly through the Play Store.
Additionally, the changelog notes that Google is delivering “updated notifications from Google Play” to users and introducing “visual improvements” for apps and games when searched for in the store.
The latest Systems update also affects Play Services, with the following changes in v24.49:
- [Phone] The new cross-device services feature allows users to find, invite, and enable cross-device functionalities.
- [Wear] Users can now update their watch’s timezone to match their current location, even when the watch is offline.
- [Wear] Wi-Fi and cellular networks are now prioritized over Bluetooth for faster downloads when updating a wearable device.
Share apps was introduced in the Play Store in 2021, following the initial release of Nearby Share a year earlier. Users could access a list of shareable apps to send to others, making the process easier compared to Android’s previous options through Nearby Share.
Google clarified that paid apps were not shareable with this feature, similar to sideloaded applications. While convenient, it’s unclear how popular it was, possibly leading to its discontinuation.
Google and Samsung set the stage for Nearby Share’s rebrand during CES 2024, positioning it as a true competitor to Apple AirDrop. The new peer-to-peer sharing platform was designed to support Android and ChromeOS devices, with plans to integrate with PC manufacturers for pre-installed computer apps.
Rumors suggest that Google may expand this sharing protocol to Apple’s Macs and iPhones in the near future.