How to disable individual Android apps from receiving automatic updates (no root required!)

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Having all of your apps updated to the latest version is usually recommended as developers strive to provide a more pleasing and issue-free experience to users, but sometimes, just sometimes, there's some incentive to not update a certain app.

Maybe it's new versions bring features that actually couldn't care less, maybe the app no longer works with your device any more, or maybe it breaks your whole Substratum setup. Few, but important reasons that could easily hold you off from updating your apps.

But how do you disable app updates for a specific app only? A layman would normally struggle with the numerous settings and totally disable the Play Store's auto-update feature from fear of receiving that dreaded update for a certain app. That's only making things worse though, as regular apps go together in the pot with the app that should't get updated.

Of course, there's a built-in native way to prevent a certain app from getting updated but it's a bit hidden away from plain sight and could easily evade your grasp. We will show you ho to do just that.

Step #1


Open up the app's Play Store page. In this guide, I will be meddling with Spotify's otherwise-impeccable app updates by disabling them. No beef, Spotify, it's just business.


Step #2


Now disabling app updates is super-easy and can be done from this screen alone. Can you guess where? Of course, as most things Android, the most important options are tucked away beneath the three-dot menu in the top right corner. 


Step #3


Simply untick the default state of automatically updating the app and you're good to go. It will never update on its own again on this device without your permission. It will only do so if you choose to update it manually.

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