Android has ruled the world of phones for years, and Google users enjoy a number of conveniences that make it easier for them to interact with their smart devices. One of the impressive features of the Google Play Store is remote app installation, a feature that now extends to uninstalling as well.
When you have multiple devices connected to the same Google account, the "install" button in the Play Store allows you to select any of these devices as the installation target. This is especially useful when you discover a new app and want to install it simultaneously on your phone, watch, TV, tablet, laptop, and even in your car, all from one device. So it made sense to want a similar feature for uninstalling apps on all devices.
The new feature to be added to the Play Store will allow just that: remote uninstalls from any device on your account. The first hints of this feature were spotted in the latest Android patch notes, which mention a "New feature for help you uninstall apps from connected devices”.
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While it doesn't appear to be activated yet, news site TheSpAndroid has published photos of the feature, showing exactly what we'd expect. Opening the Play Store and uninstalling an app will show a list of devices, just like it does now for installation.
Play Store installs are actually done through Android's push notification system. By default, pressing the install button in the Play Store prompts Google to send a push notification to the current device, but the target device for a remote install does not need to be powered on and unlocked. Just like any other push notification, when the device connects to the internet and detects the notification, it will activate and perform the required action – in this case, “install an app”.
Google slowly exposed its remote installation functionality to the world, starting with the Android Market (now Play Store) on the website in 2011. It took 11 years for a similar feature to make its way to the Play Store app for phones.
Uninstalls can also work through the push notification system. Today's news marks the first time this feature has been exposed to users, although remote uninstalls have been around for as long as remote installs.
Google can trigger the remote uninstall feature without user consent and occasionally uses this feature to mass uninstall malware from all Play Store devices. Users finally get a button to do it themselves.
