Google Follows Through With Killing Off Play Store App Sharing; Here’s What To Use Instead
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Last December, Google announced that the Play Store was losing its ability to share apps.
- Sharing options have finally disappeared in the app’s new 45.2.19-31 release.
- Android users still have other app sharing options, like Files by Google.
It’s a fact of modern life: The features we have access to today may no longer be there tomorrow. What we can do on our phones is made possible by way of the software they run, and developers are free to update their apps to add or remove features as they choose. Sometimes that can be a bit of a shock, but other times we at least get a heads-up that change is coming. One of those changes is hitting Android phones now, as Google removes a handy (if likely underused) tool from the Play Store.
We’re talking about the ability of the Play Store to share apps with other users. Especially in areas with slow or expensive wireless data, being able to quickly share an app with a friend could be a useful tool to have. But shortly before the end of 2024, Google added a note to its latest Play Services update warning users that this Play Store feature had reached the end of the road, and the company was retiring it. Or, at least, it was planning to, because the tool remained available over the weeks to come.
This was no change of heart, though, but simply one of those circumstances where Google gives us a nice, healthy warning in advance of gutting one of its apps. By now, though, the company has followed through with its promise, and with version 45.2.19-31 of the Play Store, the sharing option is finally gone (via 9to5Google).
As we noted back when we first caught wind of this change, it’s not like Google is leaving fans of the feature high and dry, and they’ve got other options for pulling off this very same trick; Files by Google offers its own suite of sharing tools, including the ability to share apps just like the Play Store used to do. Sure, you’ll have to remember the new workflow here, but this kind of consolidation really makes a lot of sense, leaving Android with more of a one-stop shop for all things sharing.
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