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Google has stopped showing the version numbers for apps on the Play Store. The change appears to have rolled out in recent days and only affects the phone versions of the apps as of now. It’s unclear whether the company deliberately made this change or it was caused by a bug.
The Google Play Store historically listed the app version number as the first item under the “App info” section of a listing’s description, which you can find by tapping the “About this app” button. However, as reported by 9to5Google, some users have noticed that the item is missing on their device. Specifically, Google has removed that information for the phone versions of the apps.
If you have a Wear OS smartwatch linked to the same Google account, the Play Store will show the version number for only the smartwatch version of the app. The information also continues to appear for AndroidTV or Google TV versions of apps. The Play Store web client, meanwhile, keeps the version numbers for all apps, including the phone versions. Version 31.6.13-21 of the mobile app that rolled out recently appears to be the culprit.
This suggests that the change isn’t deliberate and that it’s caused by a bug. As the new report notes, the Play Store shows the version number for phone apps twice within the description — both under the “App info” and “Compatibility for your active devices” sections. Maybe it wanted to remove the item from one of the two places but accidentally removed both. We certainly hope that’s the case. Otherwise, it would force users to dig into the phone settings to check app version numbers. Not being able to check version numbers before installing an app or updating would also prevent users from avoiding buggy releases.
Google has removed key app information from the Play Store in the past too
Unless this is a bug, it seems like Google enjoys depriving users of key app information on the Play Store. There have been multiple such instances over the past few months. In November last year, the company briefly stopped showing when an app was last updated to some users, much to their frustration. It did that again earlier this year before reinstating the information a few days later.
If that was not enough, Google last month removed the Permissions list. This decision attracted wide criticism of the company, forcing it to reinstate the list shortly afterward. But fresh from that backlash, the Android maker seems to have taken away another key piece of information from the Play Store. Let’s hope it’s a bug and that version numbers for phone apps will be back for everyone soon.
