Google Play Store’s latest redesign will leave you scratching your head
Google only recently redesigned the Play Store, getting rid of the hamburger menu and moving most of its menu entry to the account switcher in the top right corner. But it looks like the company isn’t done revamping the distribution service. Over the weekend, screenshots of a revamped “My Apps” section have surfaced, and we don’t like it one bit. The new layout makes it incredibly cumbersome to access the full list of installed and recently updated applications.
When you head to the “My apps & games” section of the Play Store, you normally see a collection of pending updates and most recently updated apps in the first tab — it’s a useful overview for those of us who still like to read changelogs if they even exist for any of the apps you use.
A Redditor shared images of a new “Manage apps & device” section that presumably replaces this “My apps & games” page we know. It loses most of the tabs available in the old interface, like Updates, Installed, Library, Share, and Beta, instead only giving you two sections — Overview and Manage. If you just want to check for updates real quick, the new default Overview page is pretty useless. It only lists a few menu entries and stats about Play Protect, used storage, your ratings and reviews, and options to share apps (useful for those living in markets with limited access to high-speed internet).
The redesign already appeared in 2020 for some people before disappearing again for most until now. We’ve updated the coverage accordingly.
Your app updates are just another small menu entry here, with the Play Store telling you that “All apps are up to date.” There’s an option to see details, but we don’t quite know what we’ll be able to see there. The Redditor has also shared an image of a Pending downloads section, which might be what you’ll see when you hit the app updates menu entry. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to see our recently updated apps anymore at a glance.
This isn’t the first time we’re seeing this design — it popped up back in 2020 already, but it looked like it disappeared for most people after a while. Now that it’s back, we would assume that Google is getting more serious about this redesign.
The move sure seems like it’s meant to further disincentive people from checking the Play Store for updates. Google previously removed notifications informing about finished automatic app updates, forcing those who want to stay up to date with their changelogs to check back the Play Store regularly or to deactivate auto updates — giving them notifications about pending updates. With Google and many third-party developers increasingly moving to server-side updates that bring interface and behavior changes to apps without requiring a new download, having easy access to app updates might not be a priority for many people anymore, though.
The redesign hasn’t popped up on any of our devices yet, so we can’t tell you how exactly you navigate between the different sections and sub-menus, but we’ll be sure to update our coverage once we have a better look at the redesigned interface. For what it’s worth, the Redditor reports that they’re using version 25.1.24-21, though even with it installed, we weren’t able to recreate the interface — it looks like it’s part of a server-side update. You can download this version of the Play Store over at APK Mirror if you want to try your luck, too.
The redesign already appeared in 2020 for some people before disappearing again for most until now. We’ve updated the coverage accordingly.