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Google detailed its recent Play Store and Play Services updates, which sees the retiring of a feature: Share apps.
The changelog states users will no longer be able to share apps with friends and family, which leveraged its Nearby Share protocol.
The company unveiled "Share apps" in the Play Store in 2021 and it arrived as an easy, streamlined version of Android's Nearby Share.
Google also rebranded Nearby Share to "Quick Share" earlier in 2024, pushing it closer to a true Apple AirDrop rival.
Google is starting to roll out its latest System update, but its changelog details the goodbye to a three-year-old feature.
The company's December updates for the Play Store continue as a support document details the arrival of version 44.1 (via 9to5Google). A standout in its patch notes is an update for phones that states "The Share apps feature on Google Play will be retiring."
The feature was limited to "free and publically available" apps on the Play Store for Android users. Users could previously access this by heading into the Play Store > Profile icon > Manage apps & devices. The "Share apps" feature was listed below the sync apps feature. Users could decide whether they wanted to send an app to another person or receive one.
Now, with v44.1 of the Play Store rolling out, this will soon disappear. The only other option to "send" an app to a friend will be to share its link through the Play Store directly.
The remainder of the changelog states Google is delivering "updated notifications from Google Play" to users. Additionally, the update adds "visual improvements" in the store for apps and games when searched in the respective tab.
The latest Systems update concerns Play Services, too, as that area sees the following changes in v24.49:
[Phone] With the new cross-device services with invitations settings screen, you’ll be able to find, invite, and turn on cross-device features.
[Wear] With this new feature, you’ll be able to update the timezone of your watch to match your current location, even when your watch is offline.
[Wear] When you update your wearable device, Wi-Fi and cellular networks will now be prioritized over Bluetooth for faster downloads. If Wi-Fi isn’t available, you can choose your preferred network instead.
Google started rolling out Share apps in the Play Store in 2021 after the company originally debuted Nearby Share a year prior. When activated, users were taken to a list of shareable apps to send to another person. Users were then tasked to select their recipient and match the pairing code to ensure the app wasn't going to the wrong person. This was a much less strenuous way of sharing apps compared to Android's older option through Nearby Share specifically.
Google noted that paid apps were not shareable with this feature, similar to sideloaded applications. While it was a convenient feature, it's unclear how popular it was. It could be that not enough users utilized it, thus the closure.
It's worth remembering that Google and Samsung started gearing up for Nearby Share's rebrand during CES 2024. The former highlighted the change a few weeks earlier than the conference, as it became a true Apple AirDrop rival. The new peer-to-peer sharing platform was said to support Android and ChromeOS devices. Google also stated it was planning to work alongside PC creators to make Quick Share a pre-installed computer app.
