How to delete Android apps from Google Play [can’t do it yet]

I recently contacted Google with the following question:

Hello,
Is there any way to hide apps so they don’t show up in the “My Android Apps” listing on the Google Play website?

Reason for asking:
I really enjoye the Google Play website. However, I have purchased a lot of apps, and the “My Android Apps” listings are getting very cluttered. Since there are some apps which I never use anymore, I would like to hide those and clean things up (much like how I can remove old devices from “My Devices”)

PS if there is no functionality to hide unwanted apps, do you think this is something that might be added in the future?

Thank you for your help!!!

Best regards,
-JD

Here is their response:

2012.03.28
Hi JD,

Thanks for writing in. At this time, it is not possible to completely
delete devices listed on play.google.com. That being said, you can hide
them from view by visiting My Orders & Devices (at the bottom of the page)
> Devices, clicking Show in Menus (under Visibility) and then selecting Hidden in Menus.
It is also not possible to delete apps from My Orders, though we do appreciate all the feedback we get on this feature from our users and will certainly take it into consideration. 

If I can assist you further, or if you have any follow-up questions,
please let me know.

Regards,

[...]
The Google Play Support Team


50 comments

  • nate

    its annoying you cannot remove the apps you no longer use now..

  • Kyle

    please make it possible to remove old apps off the Play list very inconvenient.

  • Lizzi

    I would definitely say we need this feature. I don’t think I’ll use it until we can delete or hide old apps – other people have used my phone in the past and downloaded stuff that I don’t care about which I would like to remove, and all the other old ones that I have used are just clogging up the page. I like everything else about Play, however. I think it’s a good idea to have all your apps easily available to re-install, especially ones you’ve bought, but would definitely benefit from a total removal of some.

    • Hi Lizzi,
      Thank you for your insightful comment. You raise a very good point that I had never considered: what if you let someone borrow/play-with your device, it stinks not being able to remove apps from Play that they may have installed.

      For your good reason, and many others, I hope that this removal/hiding functionality is in the works at Google πŸ™‚

      Best regards,
      -JD

      PS do you have a blog or some place that you post your technological thoughts? If so I would like to link to it!

  • Simon

    I agree – this is a huge issue, not just from the “I like having things tidy” POV, but also from the privacy side.
    The sooner they get this feature implemented, the better. That way I might actually be able to let Google re-sync all my apps when I build a new ROM, rather than having to do everything via Titanium Backup instead.
    Also, the ability to mark an application to NOT update would be hugely beneficial – look at the agro caused by Skype breaking the newer versions, it is a right PITA to have to manually reinstall an older version every time just to be able to use something which I have actually paid for.

    • Hi Simon,
      Great points all around.

      There is a lot to like about Google Play: for instance I love the ability to install (from the web) to whichever devices you want without evening having to go to the device or something like iTunes.. However, Google Play is definitely still missing some important features as you astutely pointed out πŸ™‚

      Best regards,
      -JD

  • Erik

    I would also love to be able to clean out old intalled apps from the google play list so it doesn’t get so cluttered πŸ™

  • T.S.M.

    I subscribe to that issue. It is not normal to not have the posibility to delete the app that you have downloaded. Ok, I understand also the idea that you have buyed an app and if someone else use you mobile or ipad to not be able to delete it. But that problem should be resolved with a request of the password when you click the delete button, to not allow the delete of app is not a solution. I am really disapointed of that. I Hope google take note of our advices and will resolve the problem.

  • Richard

    Please let us delete old apps from the play store as to not clutter up the interface. This is a simple request and I am amazed that Google has not fixed this issue. Come on Google, this should not be that hard to implement.

  • invisible

    I would definitely say we need this feature. I don’t think I’ll use it until we can delete or hide old apps – other people have used my phone in the past and downloaded stuff that I don’t care about which I would like to remove, and all the other old ones that I have used are just clogging up the page. I like everything else about Play, however. I think it’s a good idea to have all your apps easily available to re-install, especially ones you’ve bought, but would definitely benefit from a total removal of some.

  • Melissa

    I can delete books from google.play I want to delete apps too.

  • R.M

    I to feel that we now need a delete function on google play for old unistalled apps. google pull your socks and get this function sorted out quickly!!!!

  • meinereiner

    Still nothing? Is that so hard to implement? I am shocked :O

  • James

    Jeez, even crAPPLE has this feature in the iTunes s/w. I see many posts in many places requesting this necessary “feature” and STILL Google are failing to respond as well as failing to deliver. It can’t be too hard for them can it?

    • Hey James, thanks for your comment!

      Yeah it’s pretty crazy they haven’t added this feature yet… If they would just give a time frame for it or even explain why they haven’t done it yet, that would help IMHO. But as of now they’re pretty silent on the subject πŸ™ I guess we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope they implement it soon!

      Best regards,
      -JD

  • Pat E.

    Please Google, you have made us happy in the past.. don’t turn into Microsoft by ignoring the pleas of your users. In this case not being able to delete items from “MyApps” is NOT My Apps. If it were REALLY “My” apps, I could control it. If you not going to give us ownership to “our” stuff, at least label it properly.. “Install History”

    Reinstalling a device is a big pain sorting out which apps are really “MyApps” (Oh that’s right you don’t know what that means..) πŸ˜›

  • RRW

    Just installed flight tracker trial and now can’t get rid of it. Why not? There used to be an uninstall button on things when you were just market place. Now with this silly Google Play things seem to be here for ever. It’s just irritating that this stupid thing now thanks me for trying it and wants me to pay for it, but doesn’t give me the choice of uninstalling. IUf this thing were really use friendly and not s device for showing how clever programmers are, there’d be a simple uninstall button on everything and hey presto, we’d all be happier.
    This smacks of pressure selling. Is it really legal?

  • abhas

    please can some one tell me how to delete the apps from “My Android Apps” it tells me all the apps which i had downloaded. but now i have uninstalled them and i dont want them on my app page.

  • Sara

    I’m frustrated by the same issue.
    When I first got an android phone I downloaded almost ever free app known to man, just to play with them. Some were fun for a day or so, some never worked. Now I have 23 “pages” worth of mostly unused/unwanted apps with no way to get rid of them!

    Amazon, however, will let you delete unwanted apps. Looks like I’m going to be using Amazon until Google Play gets with it! :o(

  • Jim

    Cool! I will use Amazon AppStore from now.

  • mohamed Selim

    please give us ability to remove or even hide apps we do not use anymore not to be lost and cluttered by the so many apps that will make this list ignored by us you can offer the ability to hide them not remove as a solution if you want to keep track of our used apps to help you in future recommendation of apps and we could be both happy !!!!

  • oneone687

    How long to %!&* sake will we wait for this silly option!? Feature of backing up apps this way is useless until you can edit what you really want on all your devices!

  • I want to delete the app books from my iphone is it even possible I have tried everything please email me back and let me know something thank you

  • Jeff

    Thanks Sara
    Looks like I’m going to be using Amazon until Google Play gets with it! = )

    googleplay not my choice.

  • Buy the apps directly from the programmer and it won’t show up. It will be easier for technical support as well.

    • Hi Steve,
      Thank you for your suggestion. That is a definitely a great option for those apps which are available directly from the developer. πŸ™‚ Unfortunately, many apps seem to be available only through Google Play.

      Best regards,
      -JD

  • iwan

    http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=28964
    There are more than a thousand people there asking google.play to add an option to remove unused android apps completely from the uninstalled apps list. It’s been going on for months now and still they haven’t fixed this. It’s just silly.

  • Martin

    I can do it on my bootloader unlocked and rooted Nexus 7 (But not on my Galaxy S3 4G)… not sure why or how the feature got enabled but there’s a little circle above the apps status (Installed, Free, Purchased) in the My Apps screen, clicking it prompts if I wish to remove the app from the list, you can also select multiple apps by long touching the first one then short touch the rest, then click Done and it bulk removes them.

    See screenshot:
    http://tinypic.com/r/21dn151/6

  • Martin

    To add to the above checking the Play Store version reveals the Nexus has a more recent version, yet no updates for the Galaxy S3 4G:

    Nexus 7: Version 3.9.16
    Galaxy S3 4G: Version 3.8.17

    • Hi Martin,
      Thank you for the excellent info! Here’s hoping it gets rolled out, or already has been, to everyone and all devices soon πŸ™‚

      Best regards,
      -JD

  • Jerome

    This app is a virus “κ°€λŸ­μ‹œ 초이슀 (Galaxy Choice)” and I want to delete it from my play store account can someone please help me. Every time I do a hard reset and login to my google account to setup my phone it downloads itself into the phone and the phone starts restarting itself over and over again. HELP HELP HELP. Google please delete this from my account.

  • Jack

    As of yesterday you can now remove apps you do not want in your Google play list

  • Rich

    This worked on an LG Optimus Elite, Android 2.3.7 (rooted), but should work on any phone with updated Google Play.
    Open Google Play on your phone
    Bring up “My Apps”, then swipe to select “All” instead of “Installed”
    Scroll down the list. On the right side of the list, if it doesn’t say “Installed”, there will be a circle with a line through it. Press the circle for a second (make sure it is just the circle, otherwise you open the Play store entry for that app), and you will get a dialog box asking if you want to delete the app. Click “OK”. After a few seconds the list will regenerate. It takes awhile if you have a lot of apps.
    After you are done, if you go into Google Play on the website, those apps will no longer show up under ‘Other apps in my library’

  • Kyle

    Although they look gone on the device, the apps still show on the website under “My Orders.” History shows all the way back to the first day I had my device. Come on Google … Listen to us.

  • Casper

    Or just long press an item in the list and multi-select all the apps you want to remove and, when done, click the crossed circle in the top right corner.
    Worked for me.

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