What you need to know
- Google Play Store keeps sending multiple update notifications to Pixel and Samsung users.
- These notifications seem to be coming from first-party Google apps needing an update, even though they've been updated to the latest version.
- Dismissing these notifications doesn't seem to make them go away, as they keep recurring after a few minutes.
Recently, Google went on a mass deletion spree and took down several apps on Play Store that were part of a massive Ad fraud that engulfed them. Today (Mar. 18), Android users are frustrated with some kind of bug that's taken over the Play Store —sending constant notifications asking them to update the app.
According to 9to5Google, these notifications were being sent by first-party apps like Google Messages, Google Search etc. Asking users to update the app, otherwise they won't function properly.
However, once users click on the notification they're taken to Google Play Store's home page, all in vain; since the apps don't show any update available to be installed. The latest updated version available as of now is v25.09.33.
A phantom Google Play services update prompt in Google Messages as of this morning. pic.twitter.com/pxvrDy1DnuMarch 18, 2025
That's not all, the most frustrating thing that users say is that this notification never goes away. It keeps popping up every couple of minutes even after being dismissed, more like a loopy bug.
This bug seems to be impacting all Android devices users including Google Pixel and Samsung phone owners. One such Pixel user took to Reddit indicating that they had been dealing with this issue all morning and even tried to, reboot the phone as well and delete cache and storage for Google Play Services and Google Play Store, but that didn't do much either. The notification kept coming back with different Google apps showing up in the notifications tab.
Another user stated "This is occurring on my S25 Ultra but not my Pixel 9 Pro XL. The Ultra is running version 25.09.62 while the Pixel is running version 25.10.33. Both are on non-beta firmware."
Some have even suggested checking for any updates by heading to Security & privacy > Updates. However, as of now, there seems to be no fix in sight. Android Central has reached out to Google about this ongoing bug and will update this article once we have more information.
It is important to note that any troubleshooting steps that users have mentioned on Reddit threads are simply suggestions and aren't official guidelines to fix the issue.
