1. Forum
  2. Newsgroups
  3. comp.mobile.android

  • Re: PSA: The Google Play Store app is NOT a real Android app updater

    From Maria Sophia@mariasophia@comprehension.com to comp.mobile.android on Wed Mar 11 06:42:47 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

    Google Play Store (com.android.vending) updates mechanisms suck, IMHO.
    <https://i.postimg.cc/d3SvCXxS/aurora-vs-play.jpg>

    Long ago I uninstalled the Google Play Store (com.android.vending) from my unrootable Samsung Galaxy on Android 13, so I didn't know what could be updated, but today I updated my Google Play services by tapping "Check for update" inside of "Mainline Module Info" <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.simplicity.trainspotting>

    Which changed <com.google.android.gms> from:
    Google Play Services 23.33.16 (190400-560149061)
    Last update: 9/5/23 12:53AM
    To <com.google.android.gms>:
    Google Play Services 26.10.32 (190400-881056102)
    Last update: 3/10/26 10:37AM

    Bearing in mind I don't have a Google Account set up on the phone, I can't
    use <com.google.android.gms> to download apps (which Aurora does for me).

    But, having <com.google.android.gms> on the user partition means I can
    access three menus inside of it that didn't exist for the user prior.
    1. Updates (which showed 10 apps that could be updated)
    2. Play Protect (which shows that it scanned 606 apps today)
    3. Settings

    Given I have over a thousand packages, more than half of which I installed, most of them off of the Google Play repo (via Aurora), you'd think that the "Updates" toggle would find more than just these 10 apps to update.
    1. Google Wi-Fi Provisioner,
    2. Google Maps,
    3. Android Switch,
    4. Speech Recognition & S...,
    5. Android System WebView,
    6. Live Transcribe & Notifica...
    7. Link to Windows,
    8. Device Care,
    9. Samsung Push Service,
    10. Camera Kit

    Specifically, Aurora's update finds 299 updates available.
    <https://i.postimg.cc/d3SvCXxS/aurora-vs-play.jpg>

    Of course, Aurora will still show an update for an app even if the version
    we installed did NOT come from Google Play but most of those did come from
    the Google Play repo (via Aurora, of course).

    However, many came from F-Droid and some came from other repositories.
    So the signatures will not match (of course).

    My main point though, is the Google Play Store is NOT an updater by any
    means since it can't even update hundreds of apps that have updates.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Maria Sophia@mariasophia@comprehension.com to comp.mobile.android on Wed Mar 11 07:01:39 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

    Maria Sophia wrote:
    Specifically, Aurora's update finds 299 updates available.
    <https://i.postimg.cc/d3SvCXxS/aurora-vs-play.jpg>

    I just updated an app in Aurora that Google Play Store didn't even see.
    App Updater <com.update.software.updateallapps> Version 2.26.086 (86)

    Aurora checked only one thing:
    "Is there a newer version in the Play Store catalog?"
    And there was.

    So Aurora can ask Android to update apps that the Play Store can't.

    Then Android checks one thing:
    "Does the new APK have the same signing key as the installed version?"
    And it did.

    So Aurora + Android updated that app which Google Play couldn't even see.
    Which is part of why I assess that the Google Play Store update sucks.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2