Receiving updates for applications installed on a Samsung smartphone or any other with Android operating system may seem trivial to those who have used this type of phone for years, but it may not be so immediate for novice users, for users who come from iPhone or for users with issues that prevent updates. Updating apps on Android should be automatic on every mobile phone or tablet, without having to perform manual interventions; sometimes, however, this is not the case, therefore it is worth knowing in detail what options to change to update the Android Apps on smartphones and tablets, in the case both for some time that you have not received notifications concern the updates or in the event that some app has suddenly stopped to work because it has not been updated for some time.
Update Android apps on smartphones and tablets
Below we have collected all the methods that you can use on Android to update installed or pre-installed apps; we choose the most comfortable one for our needs or the most comfortable one to apply on our problematic Android device (such as cheap Chinese smartphones or tablets).Update apps through the Google Play Store
The most common and easiest method to update the apps installed on our Android smartphone or tablet involves the use of the Google Play Store, i.e. the integrated store on all devices with the green robot operating system.To start updating the apps, open the Play Store app, log in with a Google, Gmail or YouTube account (if we have not already done so), press the menu on the top left with the three horizontal lines, select the My apps and games menu and, in the Updates screen, we tap the Update all button.
The download and installation of the apps to be updated will start, we won't have to touch anything else. If we want to update a specific app, just press the Update button next to the name of the app in the screen seen previously, or start a search from the main page of the Play Store, press on the name of the app and finally select the Update button.
To set the automatic update of the apps, we open the menu at the top left (with the three horizontal lines) on the Play Store again, select the Settings menu, press on the item Automatic app update and activate the voice Only via Wi-Fi .
In this way the apps will be updated automatically every time we are connected to the Wi-Fi network and the phone is being charged; to update the apps even under a mobile data network (especially if we have a subscription with 30 GB or more) we can also activate the voice on any network, so to update the apps at any time, as long as there is an Internet connection.
Update system apps
Some system apps are not available on the Google Play Store and are updated by the manufacturer of the phone or tablet via a dedicated menu. On Xiaomi for example we can update the system apps by opening the Settings app and tapping on the System app updates item.
If there are updates for the system apps, we can download and install them comfortably from this screen; MIUI will notify with a notification when there are new updates to the system apps, so as to always have an updated and secure operating system.
Our phone or tablet does not update the system apps or presents an old version of Android "> How to update Android (even without installing new versions).
Update apps via external app stores
If we are unable to update the apps with the Google Play Store, we can always focus on one of the alternative stores available for Android, such as Aptoide.To install it, simply open the download page directly from your smartphone or tablet, confirm the download of the APK and start the manual installation; if the system blocks the installation, open Settings -> Security and add the confirmation sign from the item Unknown sources ; alternatively let's bring Apps and notifications -> Advanced -> Install from unknown sources and enable permissions for the browser where we downloaded Aptoide.
The app is very similar to the Play Store and allows you to update the apps on our smartphone or tablet with very recent versions (often even more recent than those available on the official Google store).
Update apps via APK
Another method that we can use to update Android apps on smartphones and tablets is to download the app's APK to APKMirror.
All we have to do is start the search for the app we want to update and start the download of the corresponding APK, so that we can install it manually as seen in the previous chapter. To learn more, we can read our dedicated guide on how to download APK of Android apps and receive updates without Google Play .
Conclusions
Updating the apps on our Android smartphone or tablet is very simple and, once you have learned all the steps, it becomes one of the most frequent operations. If we want the apps to update themselves, simply program the Google Play Store to update in any network condition; if instead our device does not have the Google Play Store or does not show any updates, we can always use the integrated update system (for system apps) or one of the alternative stores that we can install on Android. The last beach provides an update via APK, but it is too uncomfortable to apply it daily (let's leave it only for apps not present in the Google store).If there were problems opening the Google Play Store, we can read a guide on how to solve Google Play Store errors, especially useful in case an absent connection is reported or no app appears inside the store.
If we have a Fire TV Stick and we want to install Android apps, we suggest you read our guide on How to Install Android Apps on Fire Stick TV, from APK or Store .
If instead we look for a list with the most downloaded apps from the Play Store, we can refer to our article on the most downloaded Android Apps from the Play Store for smartphones and tablets .
