What just happened? In a bid to reduce notification spam, Google has quietly decided to do away with Play Store notifications that let users know when an app has been updated. From now on, they will only see a notification for an app update being installed, which will disappear automatically after the process is complete.

Despite the wealth of granular controls for managing notifications on our smartphones, the tiny bits of information and alerts can still get overwhelming sometimes, requiring plenty of unnecessary swipes from the user.

Google has taken another step in reducing this clutter and will no longer display Play Store notifications that inform users of when an app has been updated. Apparently, the change had been undergoing testing since November, leading several users to believe that it was a bug, irrespective of their preference for auto or manual app updates.

While the notifications did come back later in December, they disappeared again this week. The confusion was addressed recently by Google when it officially reached out to Android Police to confirm that the change was, in fact, an intended feature and not a bug.

Google's decision would ultimately result in a fewer number of notifications. However, users who like to be particular about app updates and the associated information (changelog, improvements) will need to dig slightly deeper by manually going to the 'My apps & games' section in the Play Store.