The Google Play Store has just received a version bump, bringing it to version 5.9.11 and gets devices ready for the impending launch of Android 6.0, as well as bringing with it support for fingerprint readers (hello Nexus 5X), a uninstall manager, and more.
What’s New
There’s plenty of new additions to the Google Play Store 5.9.11 and the release is clearly geared towards preparing things for the launch of Android 6.0. You’ll notice a new dialogue appear for apps optimised for Android 6.0 that will notify that such as will start asking for permissions when you start using them.
You’ll also notice that the latest Google Play Store adds in a handful of new permissions to the package, most of which are used for reading SMS messages and the contact list, which is more than likely to do with the app invite system.
Of the changes introduced with this new version of the Google Play Store, the most notable is that of fingerprint reader support. With no native support for fingerprint sensors previously in Android, it was a mystery as to how the much rumored fingerprint reader on the new Nexus lineup would function. That mystery is now cleared up with fingerprint readers officially supported in Google Play, and as such more than likely purchases using the sensor.
There’s a new feature introduced with this version of the Play Store called ‘Uninstall Manager’ that will make it easier to identify those apps that are eating all your storage and get rid of them. It seems that this feature only highlights physical app size, rather than associated media or cache space consumption.
You can read the full APK teardown over at AndroidPolice.
Why download it?
If like me you like to be on the cutting edge of developments, you can go ahead and grab the latest Google Play Store 5.9.11 APK from here. Running the latest version of the Google Play Store always ensures you have the latest features and experience the changes first-hand into new developments within the APK. Often small incremental updates will lay the ground work for future, more substantial, changes and running the latest APK enables you to see these clues for yourself and experience the fixes Google are delivering to the Google Play Store app.
[alert color=”yellow”]Please appreciate the risk when sideloading APK’s onto your device. These are unvetted by Google, which means the source or the code have not been verified. You download and load this onto your device at your own risk.[/alert]
Notice anything else different in the newest version of the Google Play Store? Drop us a comment below.
