How to Update Apps on Android

An important part of making sure that your Android phone is running smoothly and securely is keeping apps and games updated. It’s not exactly obvious how you’re supposed to do that, but we’ll show you how it’s done.

How to Update an App on Android

Open the Play Store on your Android phone or tablet and tap your profile icon in the top-right corner, then go to Manage Apps & Device > See Details > Update. Here’s how that looks.

Tap your profile icon in the top-right corner.

Select “Manage Apps & Device” from the menu that appears.

On the next screen, you’ll want to look for “Updates Available” or “All Apps Up to Date.” If you see the latter, you can stop here. There are no updates available.

If you see “Updates Available,” tap “See Details” to review which apps have updates.

Now you can tap the arrow to expand the update details and select “Update” for the app you want to update.

Simple as that. Updating one app at a time is a good idea if you want to make sure to know what every update includes. For updating multiple apps at once, check the sections below.

How to Check for App Updates on Android

The place to check for updates is the “Manage Apps & Device” section in the Google Play Store. First, open the Play Store and tap your profile icon in the top-right corner.

Select “Manage Apps & Device” from the menu.

Now you’ll either see “Updates Available” or “All Apps Up to Date.” If you see the latter, your job is done.

However, if there are “Updates Available,” you can tap “Update All” to go ahead and install all the updates right away, or tap “See Details” to take a peek at them first.

If you choose “See Details,” you can tap the arrow to expand the update details for an app, then either update them one-by-one or select “Update All.”

That’s it! The updates will begin downloading and installing. You can see the progress indicated with circles around the app icons.

How to Update All Apps on Android

To update all your apps at the same time, we’ll go to the “Manage Apps & Device” section in the Play Store and hit the “Update All” button. First, open the Play Store on your Android phone or tablet and tap your profile icon in the top-right corner.

Select “Manage Apps & Device” from the pop-up menu.

If you see “All Apps Up to Date” on the next screen, there are no apps to update.

If there are updates available, you’ll see an “Update All” button.” Go ahead and tap it.

Boom, easy as that! If you want to see information about the updates first, tap “See Details” and then you can select “Update All.”

How to Automatically Update Apps on Android

You can enable auto-updates for all apps from the Play Store by going to Settings > Network Preferences > Auto-Update Apps. Let’s do it.

Open the Play Store app and tap your profile icon in the top-right corner.

Select “Settings” from the menu.

Expand the “Network Preferences” section and select “Auto-Update Apps.”

Make sure that “Over Any Network” or “Over Wi-Fi Only” is selected, and then tap “Done.”

Every app will now be able to auto-update in the background over your preferred network connection. Keep in mind that the “Over Any Network” option will use mobile data.

How to Turn Off Auto App Updates on Android

Automatic Android app updates for apps can be turned off in the Play Store from Settings > Network Preferences > Auto-Update Apps. We can also turn off auto-updates for specific apps.

First, open the Play Store and tap your profile icon in the top-right corner.

Select “Settings” from the menu that appears.

Expand the “Network Preferences” section and select “Auto-Update Apps.”

Select “Don’t Auto-Update Apps” and tap “Done.”

Alternatively, you can keep auto-updating enabled and turn it off for specific apps. Go to an app’s Play Store listing and tap the three-dot menu icon in the top-right corner.

Uncheck the “Enable Auto Update” option.

That’s all there is to update Android apps and games! Be sure to routinely check to make sure that your apps are being updated to ensure that your Android phone or tablet is secure. It’s also important to update Android itself whenever you can, along with monthly security patches, and Google Play System updates. Out-of-date software is one of the main reasons why old Android phones need to be ditched.