Between the end of August and the beginning of September Android 14, the long-awaited new version of Google’s operating system, is almost certain to arrive. Thanks to the beta policy, we could already know much of its new features, but even so, we still have room for surprises, as already existing code references them in many cases. although these have not yet been officially communicated and documented.

This is exactly the case when we find ourselves with a discovery published by the Android Police, which tells us that Android 14 warns when we try to update a Google app from a store other than Google Play, if it was originally installed, of course from the Google Store itself. And yes, I’m aware that this can raise a lot of suspicion, so I think it’s important to explain it in more detail.

One of the novelties that will come out of Android 14 is the so-called update ownership and as you can infer from its name, when you install a new app on your device, it will refer to the store it was installed from, which will be designated as the “owner” of its updates. In this way, if we later try to update it from another repository, the operating system will notify us, although it is necessary to specify at this point that it will be an informative action in which the user can choose whether to keep the connection with ” by the store owner” or if you want to continue the update process instead.

In that case, yes if we continue the update process from another store property update ownership will be deleted and from this point on we will not receive notifications of this type with future updates, and if we want to restore it, the only way to do it is to uninstall it from the device and then reinstall it from Google Play, since it is a property that cannot be remapped during upgrades , only during installation.

Because different versions of Android apps can add up, but also subtract functions, it appears to be a measure to prevent choosing another app store where the user chooses which specific version they want to use, resulting in a loss of functionality. However, since Android 14 will only inform but allow users to make the final decision, I personally think it’s a good idea.