How to disable auto-install of Google Play apps

For beginner users, you might feel that moment of panic when all of a sudden your installed apps from the Google Play Store start to update and you don’t know why. Don’t be alarmed though because this is actually something ridiculously easy to solve as well as adjust to your own personal update preferences.

Stop that app from updating automatically.

As a general rule, the apps from the Google Play store will download updates automatically in order to improve their performance on your tablet or smartphone, which can also be quite annoying as it slows down your phone, uses up your mobile data and interrupts you as you do other things with the device.

It is recommended in most cases to update your apps, as developers work hard to improve them to be more intuitive and incorporate better designs. For this reason, many prefer to manually install updates rather than updating everything (or nothing). In order to do this, you must disable the auto-update apps feature, which is easy to do.
1. Launch the Google Play Store app and hit the in-app menu button of your Android device. Choose settings.


2. You’ll be presented with the Play Store settings options and under the ‘General’ subcategory choose ‘Auto-update apps’ which will state the current setting of this function.

3. Tapping on this option will provide you with three options which can be reconfigured at any time. You have either
*)     Do not auto-update apps
**)     Auto-update apps at any time. Data Charges may apply and
***)     Auto-update apps over WiFi only.
Choose the first one which means you will always need to manually launch an update in the future, if you so desire. You should still receive update notifications to alert you when an app needs updating though.

To manually update an app, you must go to your list of apps, which can be found back on the main menu page of the Play Store. This is located on the left-sided pull-out menu. Here you will tap on ‘My apps’ which shows you either the installed or all apps on your device. It tells you which ones can be updated, the ones that have recently been updated and finally, the up to date apps.