Google Play Store Changes – What to Expect

​After the Material Theme redesign and dark mode, the Google Play Store for Android has mainly remained unchanged. The online marketplace is now working on revamping the ‘My apps’ list, which will soon receive the name of ‘Manage apps & device,’ as well as a more integrated P2P sharing function.

According to developers at 9to5google, and based on the last version of an app uploaded by Google to the Play Store, we’re in for a few exciting changes. While decompiling the files, also known as APKs, the experts were able to see numerous lines of code within that point towards possible future functions.

A Simpler Interface

We should note that Google may decide towards or against releasing these features, but the developers only deciphered the ones more stable or closer to being finished.

The ‘My apps & games’ section is, at the moment, accessed from the navigation bar or by long-pressing the Play Store’s Home screen icon. In the drawer, there are four tabs, starting with a list of new and recent app ‘Updates.’ This is mainly the section that users engage with, followed by the ‘Installed’ list, ‘Library,’ and ‘Beta.’

The team of developers at 9to5google managed to enable a new design that’s been in works for the last few weeks, which could change before rolling out. It starts with the app renaming the page to ‘Manage apps & device,’ to offer a more precise description of what you can do in the section.

Moreover, an ‘Overview’ tab shows if updates are available and give users a shortcut to ‘Update all’ or ‘See details.’ Then, there’s a storage indicator and shortcut to the ‘Your ratings & review’ page.

As seen in the image above, the ‘Manage’ tab is where the plethora of changes are coming – Google has pretty much merged three views into one. You’ll see three filters: ‘Installed’ or ‘Not installed,’ which replaced the ‘Library’ function, ‘Updates Available,’ and ‘Games.’ You’ll also have a ‘Sort by’ filter to view the updates in the way it makes more sense to you.

More Functions to Enjoy

The Google Play Store’s new ‘Manage apps & device’ page will receive some refinement, but it’s overall cleaner and simpler as it removes unneeded individual feeds or lists. We have no information on the release date of the changes, though.

In addition, another discovery made by the developers at 9to5google notes a checkbox beside each app. Users can employ it to quickly select more than one app to either delete or update, as well as review individual ones, for a more convenient bunch control. The top bar updates to display how many you’ve chosen as well as their size.

The overflow menu also depicts a third option: ‘Share,’ as depicted in the image above. This process starts with the sender launching the ‘Send apps’ page or making a direct selection when choosing a device to share. This more incorporated method will probably popularize this function.

This is continual work on Google’s peer-to-peer (P2P) offline application sharing that was first launched in 2018 for third-party file mangers, such as Files (Go). It is an incredibly useful app for those in low bandwidth markets.