‘Ghost updates’ issue for Android apps is more widespread than ever

Last month it was reported that some Android users were witnessing an unusual phenomenon wherein they were getting ‘empty’ or ‘ghost’ app updates. These seem to have become a more widespread issue. These updates are seen in the ‘Updates’ tab inside the Google Play app but without any details such as the update size or the version number. Some users who tried to find some extra details inside the app listing, were not able to see the new changelog, reports Android Police.

Even after those updates are installed, there doesn’t seem to be any change in those apps. It has been mentioned that such ‘ghost updates’ or ‘phantom updates’ are related to Google apps for the most part. Some of the apps shown in the screenshot include YouTube TV, Google Fit, Digital Wellbeing and Gboard.

However, this doesn’t seem to be a new issue. The same issue was highlighted by 9to5Google as well in a report from last month. However, it was mentioned that if users closed the Google Play app from the multi-app window, some of those updates will disappear and will be replaced with some new ones.

The same issue was raised by a Pixel 3XL smartphone user on the Pixel’s Help Forum but was closed after a single reply, without any answer. The screenshot posted by the user on the forum showed Twitter as one of the apps showing up without any details under the ‘Updates’ section.

Google is yet to address the issue or give a statement on what’s the deal with ‘phantom apps’.

Meanwhile, Google Play went down for a few hours on the web and Android. The issue started at around 4PM PT on Wednesday (4:30AM IST on Thursday) and peaked at around 6PM PT (6:30AM IST on Thursday) with users seeing error messages on the homescreen tabs for Games, Movies and TV, Apps and Books on Android.