Google Play Store is a very popular app that comes pre-installed on all the latest Android devices. It is very important to have the latest version of the Play Store to get access to millions of apps in various genres and categories.
Check and update to the latest version of Google Play Store
The Google Play Store undergoes regular updates in the background. This will help in certain bug fixes as well as streamlining the app.
Steps to get the latest Play Store version
- Tap on the home screen button on your phone or the apps folder option on the Android phone.
- Look for the Play Store app icon and then tap on it to launch it.
- Once you are in the Play Store app, tap on the three horizontal lines placed one above the other on the left top corner of the Play Store page. This is the Play Store Menu button.
- Scroll down the menu option to get access to the Settings option. Once you find it, tap on it.
- You will now get access to settings options, scroll down to see the version of the Play store on your phone that is shown as the Build Number. Tap on it.
- If there is an update of the Play Store app available for your phone, you will be receiving a prompt message mentioning the same.
- You can tap on the update option to get the Play Store app on your Android phone updated to the latest version.
How to access Google Play using your Android smart phone?
Accessing Google Play Store uses an Android smart phone is easy. You need to set up the Google Play account, in order to access the Play Store. If you have a new android phone you will have a registered Google account once you set up the Smartphone.
To set up Google Play account, all you have to do is access the Play Store by selecting the Play Store icon from the list of apps in the menu and provide the required Google credentials.
Here is the step by step procedure to set up the Google play account on your Smartphone
- Switch on your Android smart phone.
- Go to the menu by pressing the menu option on the screen.
- From the app list in the menu, find and tap on the “Play Store” icon.
- You will be taken to a new window ‘Add a Google Account”. As you already have a registered Google account, tap on the option “Existing”.
- You will be now taken to the “sign in” window. Fill in the fields giving your Email and password for the Google account.
- After filling the fields tap on the arrow at the bottom on the right side of the screen.
- Next step is to set up payment info. You can select your preferred mode of payment when you make purchases from the Play Store from the “set up payment info” interface. If you prefer to fill out the billing info later, you can do so by tapping the “Skip” option at the bottom of the screen. After selecting the payment method, tap on “continue” option.
- Finally, you can use your registered Google account to back up the Smartphone. To do this, tap on “keep this phone backed up with my Google account” at the Backup and restore window on the phone. You can change your backup settings anytime you want by going to the “Settings”.
- Now you can access Play Store by tapping on the arrow at the bottom on the right side of the screen.
Steps to add another Google Play account on your Android phone
In order to add another Google Play Account, you need to sign in with a new Google account. You can create additional Google accounts using your Android phone through simple steps. Here is the process.
- To add a new account from the Android Smartphone setting, go to the settings menu and tap on the “Cog” icon by pulling down the notification shade.
- Scroll down to find “Accounts” or “Accounts &sync” according to the device you have and tap on the option.
- Your phone screen will show the list of accounts you have already signed in to. At the bottom of the screen, you can find the “Add account” option. Tap on it.
- From the list of apps, select “Google” and tap.
- You will be asked to provide the PIN, password, pattern or fingerprint before you can continue if your Smartphone is protected by any of these.
- Continue the process by giving the info about your Google account and then the password for the account. If you have opted for two-step authentication, this process will take a few minutes. Once the verification is completed, tap on “Accept”.
- You can select which account should be synced to your device by going to the settings.
- Play Store supports multiple accounts hence you can use the new Google account to access Play Store. Select the account option by tapping on the button on the top left side of Play Store. You will be able to access the apps from Play Store for the account selected by you.
Download apps from Google Play Store
Once you have opened a Google account and have used it to access the Google Play Store app, then downloading your favorite apps offered on the Store is not a difficult task. The steps to download Play Store apps you like are as follows.
- Open the Google Play Store app and on the main page, you will find the various categories of apps on offer at the top of the page like games, books, newsstand, movies, etc.
- Choose the category that you are interested in and tap on it.
- You can also use the search icon option seen on top of the Play Store app page to type and search for the app you are looking for. This can be done only if you know the name of the app that you would like to download on the phone.
- After you have typed the name, tap on the Search icon and the Play store will locate that app you are looking for and display the link to it on the screen.
- Choose the app that matches your request and you will be taken to the information page about that app.
- There will be an install button under the name of the app that you can tap to start the download and install process of the app.
- After the app gets downloaded and installed, you can find it on your Home screen or the app section of the home screen.
- If there are a few apps that are not useful, you can very well uninstall those apps on your phone to save storage space.
Problems with Google Play Store and their solutions
There are many problems and issues by which you might not be able to sign in to your Google Play Store account on your Android phone.
Common Google Play Store problems
- Username and password typos
The first thing to check is whether or not you are entering the right username and the password for your Google account.
- Poor data connectivity
The next option is to see if the mobile data connection or the Wi-Fi connection is working or not. It is important you have access to a strong Wi-Fi network or a strong mobile data to work on the Google Play Store on your phone hassle-free.
- Switch off and restart android phone
The next option to do in order to see if Google Play store account works on your phone is to switch off the Android phone and all the apps. You should be looking to shut down the phone. Once the phone is shut down, you should wait for a couple of minutes before restarting the phone. There are chances that you might get access to the Google Play store app over the phone restart.
- Low storage space
If your device does not have enough storage space, then some Google Play Store apps will not download and install. It is very important to have a free storage space of over 500 MB for the apps to get downloaded to the device.
- Remove Google account and re-add it
The first thing to do is to remove the Google Account on the phone.
- Tap on the Settings option on your Android phone that will be represented as a gear icon.
- Scroll the Settings option to locate the Personal option and tap on it. Now, inside the Personal option, look for Accounts option and tap on it.
- There will be details of all accounts you have on the phone. Choose the Google option and tap on it.
- Now choose the Google Play Store account you would like to remove and tap on it. Now press the “More” option to get access to remove account option.
- Tap on it and the chosen Google Play Store account will be removed from the phone.
- Re-adding the Google Account
- Tap on the Settings option on your Android phone.
- Locate the Personal option in the drop-down menu of the settings option and tap on it.
- Now, look for the Accounts option and tap on it.
- Locate the Add Account option, and tap on it.
- You will be asked to enter the Google username and the password and follow the instructions on the screen to complete the process of adding a new account.
- Once the Google Play Store account is added on to the Android phone, you can open the Google Play Store app.
- Locate the menu option on the top left-hand corner of the Google Play Store main page and tap on it.
- In the different options of the Menu folder, locate the username and the email address of the account that you want to use.
- Once the account is chosen, visit the app that you had trouble downloading and installing and try to download it once more.