Updates to Android – the beast is quite rare and shy. Some did not see him at all, while others thought they had seen more than once, although in fact they were ordinary dummies. But if everything is really pretty bad with system updates for Android, then with application updates from Google Play, there usually were no interruptions. Developers regularly pulled their straps, regularly releasing fresh versions of their programs, fixing bugs, vulnerabilities and providing them with new functions. True, something happened recently, and empty updates fell on users.
Phantom updates have appeared on Google Play
The first complaints about empty updates appeared in April, but somehow too selectively. Because of this, neither Google nor the majority of users paid attention to this fact, considering it either a local failure or a banal fiction. However, over time, the problem began to grow and they began to talk about it more and more, and everything is the same. According to affected users, they regularly received dozens of updates for installed applications, which, however, did not contain any description of the changes that had occurred and did not even carry weight.
Blank updates on Google Play
Phantom updates seem to weigh nothing, but the download is in progress
Regular updates have a small arrow, clicking on which opens information about all changes and the weight of the update, so that the user can navigate its value and decide whether to install it in the absence of a Wi-Fi connection simply via LTE or not. In the case of phantom patches that are poured onto users on an ongoing basis, getting them notifications about the need to download, there is nothing like that. It's just that in the application update section, the 'Update' buttons appear opposite each of the installed applications without any descriptions.
A detailed analysis of the problem showed that most often phantom updates come for Google's own applications. However, there are exceptions. Therefore, it is rather difficult to say unequivocally where they come from and what their nature is. However, there is little doubt that this is indeed a glitch. The fact is that dummy updates can appear every day, and several times a day, which normally does not happen, since developers need a lot of time to develop an update.
How to enable auto-update apps
If you face the same problem, we have a temporary solution for you – auto-update.
- Launch Google Play and open the context menu with a swipe from the left edge of the screen;
Turn on auto-update in 'Settings' Google Play
- Go to 'My Apps & Games' and turn on 'Auto-update';
- Then go back to the context menu and open 'Settings';
- Here, select the 'Auto-update' option and turn on 'Wi-Fi only';
And then activate auto-download updates only over Wi-Fi
- If you wish, you can still go to 'Notifications' and disable the distribution of notifications about available updates.
After that, all applications that you have on your smartphone will be updated strictly in automatic mode. And due to the fact that we have allowed updating only via Wi-Fi, mobile Internet traffic will not be consumed in principle. That is, the smartphone, having connected to the wireless network, initiates the update itself, and since we have also turned off notifications, they will not be poured on you throughout the day as phantom updates are added.
Should I enable auto-update on Google Play
Auto-update is said to be a very resource intensive feature. Say, the smartphone is forced to keep in touch with Google Play all the time in order to receive information about the released updates and immediately install them. However, as my personal experience has shown, this does not do any harm to charging from the word at all. Google designed the auto-update mechanism in such a way that it consumes no more energy than the background work of Sberbank's built-in antiviruses and other banking applications. Therefore, feel free to turn it on and use it.