**Updated** If you are a long time Android user then you are familiar of the fact that there is no option available to manually update “Google Play Services” & “Google Play store”. Updating Google services app on Android is completely different from how we update other apps on our smartphones and tablets. If you ever tried you will know that we can’t find “Play Store” & “Google play services” apps on play store unless you have a direct URL to access it through web. Strangely whenever there is an update available for these apps, it’s not even shown in the ‘updates’ section in play store. These apps are programmed to update in the background automatically, when the device is connected to WiFi.
So how do we update Google play store and play services manually? We do have 2 ways to update these apps. One is forceful & another is installation.
Option 1 : Manually force Google play store to update
This is a really simple technique using which we can trigger the apps to get updated. Consider this as giving a push to the play services update or like we’re forcing it to check and update to the latest version.
- Open Google Play store App on your Android phone and go to “SETTINGS”.
- Scroll Down to find the “Build Version” and tap on it.
- If the Play Store is already Up-to-date then it will show a small pop-up showing “Google Play Store is up to date ” as shown in the Picture below. Otherwise the update request will be queued internally. Sometimes the app gets updated instantly. In some cases it takes a little while to update – gives us play services update.
Option 2 : Update Google Play Store & Service Manually Using Apk file
There are some cases in which you may want to install the latest beta version of playstore or play services. In those cases the option 1 won’t work. Option 1 will update only to stable versions. So how do we update to latest beta version? Unfortunately there is no option to do it using play store. We need get the latest verison apk file and install it.
Caution : Do not download apk files from unfamiliar sites as there is a possibility of those set up files being tampered or may contain malware. I suggest you to download latest apk files from Apkmirror.com.
Download latest version Apk file for Google play store and play services from Apk Mirror (click on the links to go to download page). Once downloading finished open the file and it will ask for confirmation to install. On completion this installed new version will replace the existing version installed on your smartphone.
If the downloaded apk is not compatible it wont install and will throw an error. So download the compatible version by checking for the right version.
Please leave a comment if you have any doubt regarding the mentioned procedure.
Final Words
It is highly recommended by Google to have the latest version of “Play Services” installed on your smartphone. One of the main reasons behind this is Google pushes the security updates to Android devices once every few weeks through the google play services update. Similarly having an updated google play store app can offer us new features. Some of them are update UI, new animations, improved algorithm updates, faster downloading.
If you tried this method, please do leave a comment to let me know if this helped you.
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For some reason I am unable to open Google play store or Gmail app (built in)….when I check the Google play service in settings I notice the uninstall update and forced stop was not lit (like if you wanted to uninstall or force stop)…I don’t know what to do, I am unable to reinstall them…can you help?…thank you..
H Michelle,
These issues are all not uncommon. So don’t worry about that.
– First of All, Just try to uninstall the update version and see if it’s working or not. (Settings > Apps > Playstore/Gmail)
– If not, then Goto the App info (Settings> Apps> Playstore/Gmail > ) and click on Clear data. it will ask for confirmation, Click ok. Now see if it works or not.
After each step, try to restart the phone. Sometimes restarting a phone works like magic.
– The Last option, If it still doesn’t work then Try to reset the mobile. This time for 100% sure it will work. But Don’t forget to backup all your contacts, messages, Gallery before doing a reset.
I Hope this helps. Please leave a reply for any further help. :)
its not updating and showing only ” A new version of Google play service will installed and stored
Yeah. Me too. I clicked ‘OK’ but nothing happened. ????
Hi Krystal, The app will be updated in the background and you wont see any download status in the notification bar or anywhere else. Though i don’t know for sure how google will schedule it’s update (based on what priority) but it will be updated automatically.
Since you have triggered the auto update, I Suggest you to wait for sometime and check back. If it got updated then it will show “Google play store is up to date”.
Thanks for reaching out. Have a great day. :)
Thank you for this. My play store is not updated.