What you need to know

  • Some users are reporting that Google Play Music no longer shows up in the Play Store.
  • The app is showing up fine on our end, so it's unclear what Google is up to.
  • Play Music is no longer pre-installed as a default Google app starting with Android 10.

It's been over a year since the revamped YouTube Music launched as Google's new defacto streaming service, and following that launch back in May 2018, it's been a confusing period for long-time Google Play Music users. It's been clear from the beginning that YouTube Music would replace Google Play Music at some point down the road, and today, we're seeing another effect of that transition.

In the r/GooglePixel subreddit, user u/Nickkel71 reported that searching "Google Play Music" in the Play Store on their Pixel 2 turns up no results for the Play Music app. Opening a direct URL to the app still works for them, but Play Music refuses to show up when doing a search.

A lot of people are responding to the post indicating that Play Music shows up just fine for them, but other people like u/bobdmv can't find it either on their Pixel 3. For what it's worth, I can search for Play Music on the Play Store on my Note 10 and it shows up just fine.

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It's unclear why Play Music is disappearing from Play Store searches for such a sporadic group of people. It's possible that this is nothing more than a bug, or Google could be trialing this with a small group of people before hiding Play Music from more folks.

In fact, it wouldn't be all that surprising to see a move like this happen sooner rather than later. Just last week, it was confirmed that YouTube Music will replace Google Play Music as the default streaming app on new phones that are released running Android 10 and Android 9 Pie.

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