Google will soon stop users from downloading or installing outdated apps
Apps aren’t always supported forever. There could be many reasons why a company discontinues their support for an app, like running out of money, launching a new one, another company acquiring them for their tech and then discontinuing support for the app, and so on.
In some cases, developers do leave the app up in the Play Store where users can still download and use it if they want as long as it remains compatible, but that will change in the future. This is according to an announcement by Google who revealed that later this year, apps that are out of date will no longer be discoverable or installable by users.
“Starting on November 1, 2022, existing apps that don’t target an API level within two years of the latest major Android release version will not be available for discovery or installation for new users with devices running Android OS versions higher than apps’ target API level. As new Android OS versions launch in the future, the requirement window will adjust accordingly.”
According to Google, this is done for privacy and security reasons. The company says that with every Android OS update, there are improvements made on privacy and security and that apps on the Play Store are expected to take advantage of these changes, so as you can imagine, an app that hasn’t been updated for more than two years is definitely missing out on a lot of features.
This doesn’t mean that if you already have an outdated app installed on your phone it won’t work anymore, but if you ever accidentally delete it, you might not be able to download or install it anymore come 1st of November, 2022.
Source: Google