Android 14 will make it easier to update apps from third-party stores and avoid interruptions

14 Feb. (Portaltic/EP) –

Google has introduced in Android 14 certain functionalities for third-party application stores, with which it will make the updates of these services efficient and do not cause interruptions.

The company has an official store, Google Play Storewhich integrates all the applications compatible with the Android operating system and coexists with other external and unofficial services, the so-called third-party ‘app’ stores.

These other alternative app stores work differently, as they are not within the reach of verification systems and security that Google does implement in the Play Store.

Unlike the official source, from which services that include some type of malicious ‘software’ or that do not comply with their use policies are removed, among other assumptions, alternative stores do not have an official review system, so that yes they can offer fraudulent applications or ‘malware’ containers.

Likewise, while the Google Play Store comes pre-installed on all mobile phones with the Android operating system and updates automatically, third-party app stores They have to be downloaded manually.

Until May 2021, in addition, the updates of these application stores were not carried out automatically, something that Google solved with a new application programming interface (API) on Android 12, just as you remember XDA Developers.

Although this API benefited third-party application stores, it was also a disadvantage for them, since they do not have the security measures that the Play Store offers in their updates. To this is added that these updates can interrupt the activity of the applications in use and close them abruptly during installation of the new versions.

To solve these problems, Google has developed a new API for Android 14 -available in a previous version for developers- that allows these stores to implement a series of ‘gentle updates’ or ‘soft updates’. Thanks to this, alternative stores will be able to verify if certain conditions are met before proceeding with the automatic update of an application.

These alternative stores will be able to use the API BackageInstaller.InstallConstraints, that will allow them to verify if an application that requires an update is running in the foreground, is being used by the user, or its interface is open on the screen.

This medium also points out that, thanks to this improvement in Android 14, alternative stores will also be able to verify if the device is in idle mode or on a phone call.

Along with the so-called ‘soft updates’, the Android 14 API introduces a system that allows third-party app stores to become the only ones that can distribute updates to the applications that have been downloaded through them.

Thus, updates to an app that have not been approved by that alternative virtual store but are available through other app stores they will not be installed automatically on the device.