Damien Wilde / Android Authority
Samsung’s Galaxy Store has been around for a long time, and it’s where you’d go to download and update Samsung apps, Galaxy Themes, apps for your Tizen smartwatch, and more. In recent years, however, the Galaxy Store has become less relevant, and today it’s little more than an annoyance that lives in a forgotten folder on my Galaxy S25. It’s time for Samsung to cut its losses and move everything to the Play Store.
Do you want to use the Galaxy Store? 127 votes Yes 28 % No 69 % I don't own a Galaxy device 3 %
Pop-ups and failed updates
Joe Maring / Android Authority
No app store is free of ads, but the Galaxy Store takes things to extremes. Whenever I open it, I’m greeted by a pop-up for some app or in-game event that I have no interest in and is almost always associated with some gacha app that wants to drain my bank account. You can only turn off these pop-ups for a single day, so the next time you launch the Galaxy Store to update a Good Lock module, another annoying ad will be in your way.
Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority
Worse than ads and pop-ups, the Galaxy Store can’t even accomplish its primary purpose — keeping my apps updated. To begin with, automatic updates are somehow less reliable than even the Play Store, so whenever I open the Galaxy Store, I usually have over a dozen apps that need updating, with no notification or indicator to say as much without opening the store.
Even worse than that, though, is the way apps installed from the Play Store confuse it. As you can see in the screenshot above, three apps have updates available, but each listing says “can’t auto update. Installed from Google Play Store.” New versions of these apps are available, but what use is there in telling me that if the Galaxy Store can’t update them for me? Trying to update an app from this screen manually results in the same error, and the only way to resolve it is to go to the Play Store and update the app there.
No longer relevant
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