How to prevent automatic application updates on Android
Automatic application updates are a comfortable feature of the Android operating system. If enabled -- and it is by default -- it will download and install updates for installed applications automatically on the device.
While most Android users may appreciate the feature some may not want their applications to be updated automatically by the system itself.
The two core reasons for that are control and bandwidth. Control should be self-explanatory. If you let the device download and install updates, you give up control as you cannot intervene at all. Bandwidth on the other hand can be an issue as well if you have configured the feature to update apps at any time.
A recent change to Android's app permission system changes how installed applications can integrate new permissions. Permissions have been grouped now into categories such as SMS or camera/microphone, and you no longer allow a single permission on your device but the group instead.
So, an application that requests to read SMS messages will require access to the SMS privilege group. While that may make sense on first glance, it means that the author of the extension can use any other permission of that group as well.
The author could deliver an update for the application to send SMS messages for example without you knowing about it thanks to Android's automatic update feature.
You can find out more about the change on the How To Geek website.
Disable automatic app updates on Android
The only protection you have against this new "threat" is to disable automatic updates. Here is how that is done:
- On your Android device, open the Google Play Store application.
- If you are not on the front, go back to it.
- Here you need to tap on the Hamburger icon in the top left corner of the screen.
- Select settings from the menu that opens up.
- Tap on auto-update apps to display three options: do not auto-update apps, auto-update apps at any time, or auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only.
- Select do not auto-update apps.
This blocks application updates from being downloaded and installed automatically on the device. You will still receive notifications about updates and can run them manually at any time.
If you do not want to disable automatic updates for all apps, you can disable them for individual apps instead. To do so, visit the application's page on Google Play, tap on the three dots menu at the top and uncheck the auto-update option that is displayed there.
Control updates before you install them
Now that you have disabled the auto-update feature, you may want to control the permissions of each application before you allow it to be updated.
This is done by clicking on the apps' name in the update notification or by opening its store page manually. Here you need to scroll all the way down until you find permissions under additional information. Tap on the view details link to display the permissions.
All new permissions are highlighted so that you know exactly what is new and what is not.
Which permission groups are available?
According to Google's support page, the following permission groups are available right now:
- In-app purchases
- Device & app history
- Cellular data settings
- Identity
- Contacts/Calendar
- Location
- SMS
- Phone
- Photos/Media/Files
- Camera/Microphone
- Wi-Fi connection information
- Device ID & call information
- Other
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?