If you have multiple Android devices, you might like to keep the experience about the same across them. If you download an app that’s useful on your phone, there’s a good chance you’ll also want that app on your tablet, or even your Chromebook. Likewise, if you no longer find an app useful on one device, you likely won’t want to keep it on your other devices, either.
It can be annoying, however, to uninstall the app from each of your devices individually. Maybe you’re using the app on your smartphone and you decide to delete it, but forget to delete it on your other devices. It might live on your tablet or Chromebook for a while before you realize you want it gone. That’s annoying, but, in extreme cases, it can also be risky: Maybe you’re trying to delete an app that was later discovered to be malicious, but if it still lives on your other devices, it might end up causing you harm. While there has been a way to remotely uninstall apps on other devices, it’s been buried in the “Manage apps and device” section, and isn’t all that easy to execute.
The latest update to the Play Store aims to fix that problem. As spotted by Android Authority, with version 48.8, the Play Store now lets you simply uninstall apps from your other devices using your smartphone. Once you’re running this version of the Play Store (as well as future versions), you can visit an app’s Play Store page and look for a new “Available on more devices” section. Here, you’ll see all of your connected Android devices, with options to either “Uninstall” or “Install” the app on those devices. There’s no longer the need to dig through your settings.
What do you think so far?
This feature should make it easy to keep your Android ecosystem a bit more ordered and organized, but it’s not the only improvement the Play Store is rolling out. Starting next year, Google will start penalizing apps that use too much battery power. The Play Store will either remove those apps from discoverability pages, or add an alert to the apps’ Play Store pages, warning users these apps take up more battery than necessary.
