Galaxy Apps overwriting / taking over Google Apps installs?

[BBIronMan]

This happened today for the first time although I've been using the Galaxy Apps and Google Play in parallel since I've gotten the phone.

Galaxy Apps downloaded and replaced three of my apps from Google Play - one of them, Lyft, is not Lyft for Samsung. Google Play shows all three apps still installed. No duplication icons or anything - no settings changed, nothing lost. Just 'new' apps in place of what I had before.

The three were:

Audible
F-Secure Freedome VPN
Lyft for Samsung

Uhhh .... ???? Why ????

Can I depend on these? Can I depend on this to stay updated? I can't get rid of Galaxy Apps if I want to update the Samsung programs. I don't want Samsung obliterating potentially newer updates from Google Play. Is that a risk? I end up with old versions?

Any insight appreciated. Cheers.

 

[chanchan05]

The devs for the apps keep Samsung apps updated as far as I see. Plus they give you lots of freebies. Kindle for Samsung for example gives you 1 free book a month.

 

[BBIronMan]

The devs for the apps keep Samsung apps updated as far as I see. Plus they give you lots of freebies. Kindle for Samsung for example gives you 1 free book a month.

That's still not terribly comforting - I have to have the Galaxy Apps installed to update Samsung things. Then it can - without consent - OVERTAKE my other apps with Samsung versions? And I can't see what 'that list' is ... unlike in Google Play where I can see everything installed / managed, I can't in the Galaxy Apps store. It actually shows me a bunch of things I don't have installed in the 'my' section and one thing I do have. Just a bizarre list that I can't make any sense of.

Is this new behavior or has it always been this way and nobody says anything? Searches are turned up nothing ...

 

[chanchan05]

This was already normal behavior since the Note 2/S3 as far as I remember.

 

[pjwk81]

I've seen the opposite recently. My MS Office apps were through the Galaxy Store since I got the phone but they have reverted back to the Play Store of late.

 

[BBIronMan]

I've seen the opposite recently. My MS Office apps were through the Galaxy Store since I got the phone but they have reverted back to the Play Store of late.

It appears they are in competition with each other - I was in the unfortunate position to see two behaviors I'm not a big fan of:

1. 'Lyft for Samsung' overwrote my regular Lyft and it's an **OLDER** verion (Audible and Freedome were current)
2. Google Play thinks Lyft is current and installed and won't let me upgrade again without first removing the install

I finally found a reddit thread that confirmed @chanchan05 - but Lyft being out of date was discouraging. I don't look forward to seeing what else Galaxy Apps 'takes over' for no reason and without prompting AND without actually telling me what it's doing unless I happen to see the auto-update happen (because they are not in 'My Apps' either).

If Lyft had not actually changes its name (and splash screen) to 'Lyft for Samsung) - I might've missed that one entirely.

I'd ask Samsung what behavior should happen but last time I opened a ticket with them it was back-and-forth trying to converge on language instead of the problem. :-/

 

[chanchan05]

As far as I can see, Galaxy apps aren't out of date. They'll just revert back to the Play Store version once the promotions end.

 

[pjwk81]

Was there supposed to be a 6 month promotion with the Office apps?

 

[BBIronMan]

As far as I can see, Galaxy apps aren't out of date. They'll just revert back to the Play Store version once the promotions end.

So for Lyft - therein lies the problem. Lyft for Samsung is the same 'new customer' promotion every reference gives you. If you, like me, have already used it - it provides no benefit. Just forced an old version on me without my consent. Then I have to uninstall it - install the one I want. And at that point the 'update' box I just un-checked for the Samsung version is gone. And it happens over again.

I submitted it to Samsung but that's just broken behavior. It'd be tolerable, although still IMO not 'OK', if it was a current release.

BTW - Capaldi's eyes from the 50th are a great avatar. :-D

 

[chanchan05]

Would there be any difference as to just using the app or would there be a loss in function?

 

[BBIronMan]

Would there be any difference as to just using the app or would there be a loss in function?

In these releases the differences were UI related as far as I can tell - the app still functions but there are features pertaining to usability that are gone using the Samsung aged version. It's just odd - 'taking over' apps to me seems really odd but I get I'll get used to it.

Thanks, sincerely, for your consistent responses. Cheers.

 

[Alanhd]

Mine has the option to turn off auto update Galaxy apps in the settings for Galaxy apps

 

[BBIronMan]

Mine has the option to turn off auto update Galaxy apps in the settings for Galaxy apps

Yes - and that works kinda of ..

However, this was different. This replaced apps I haven't installed from Samsung. So I couldn't turn it off per app until after it happened.

So now I have to leave auto-updates off across the board to prevent it from replacing apps from Google Play by itself.

 

[blargargh]

Within the past couple weeks I started noticing apps I installed originally through Google Play being updated with Samsung versions. I didn't think too much of it initially but today noticed that in-app purchases for these apps switched from google to Samsung Pay which I'm not terribly inclined to have another place for my credit card info to get leaked from. I've disabled updates inside the Galaxy Apps app and uninstalled and re-installed the apps from Google Play so hopefully that stops it.

 

[chanchan05]

Within the past couple weeks I started noticing apps I installed originally through Google Play being updated with Samsung versions. I didn't think too much of it initially but today noticed that in-app purchases for these apps switched from google to Samsung Pay which I'm not terribly inclined to have another place for my credit card info to get leaked from. I've disabled updates inside the Galaxy Apps app and uninstalled and re-installed the apps from Google Play so hopefully that stops it.

That's weird. What apps are doing that for you? I haven't had any random changes except for Microsoft apps.

 

[BBIronMan]

That's weird. What apps are doing that for you? I haven't had any random changes except for Microsoft apps.

I saw a similar thing but not for _active_ subscriptions. For active subscriptions, it stayed w/ Google Play. However, for the one app that has in-app purchases, it's now defaulting to Samsung Pay.

It's all quite bizarre so far and I wish the flip-flopping would stop without me having to change it after Samsung adds something to their app store.

 

[konvajw]

Same exact thing for me with 3 apps - started a couple weeks ago. Lyft, Bloomberg and Wunderlist. All installed via Google play store, but updates showing up in galaxy apps. Don't want to install these updates because outdated like you mention. Any way to get rid of these updates from showing up in galaxy apps (and continue to notify me that updates are available)?