Google Play system update for March 2022 rolling out with new Play Games privacy settings and more

For the past few months, Google has finally been showing a changelog for its monthly system updates that roll out to Android, Wear OS, Android TV, and other platforms via the Play Store. Today, the March 2022 changelog went live with updates to Play Games privacy and more.

Detailed on a support page, the March 2022 Google Play system update doesn’t have any earth-shattering changes, but it does have a bunch of improvements across the board. Google says that the update contains a “critical” fix for Android, Android Auto, Android TV, and Wear OS with bug fixes for “device connectivity, developer services, safety & emergency, and utilities related services.”

Further, Google says that this update expands on privacy settings for Play Games. While Google doesn’t explain exactly what these new settings are (we’ll update this article if further clarification is revealed), Google says these new changes come with an update to Play Services v22.09. Notably, Google also recently made it possible to change your account for games through Play Games, but the feature works without this March 2022 update (we’re seeing it on Play Services v22.02).

Google’s changelog also cites better “feature education” for devices with NFC/HCE, improvements to the “play-as-you-download” feature on Google Play, and more. The full changelog follows:

Critical Fixes

• [Auto, Phone, Tablet, TV, Wear OS] Bug fixes for device connectivity, developer services, safety & emergency, and utilities related services. ^[1][2]

Games

• [Phone, TV] With the update to the Play Games Services profile, users will be able to better manage their privacy settings. ^[2]

Google Play Store

• Improvements to Play-as-you-download feature to let gamers start playing mobile games while the app download continues to reduce waiting times. ^[3]
• New Features to help you discover the Apps & Games you love.^[3]
• Optimizations allowing faster and more reliable download and installation.^[3]
• New features to the Play Pass and Play Points programs. ^[3]
• Enhancements to Google Play Billing. ^[3]
• Continuous improvements to Play Protect to keep your device safe. ^[3]
• Various performance optimizations, bug fixes and improvements to security, stability and accessibility. ^[3]

Wallet 

• [Phone] Improved user experience and feature education for NFC/HCE-enabled devices. ^[2]

System Management 

• Updates to system management services that improve device connectivity, network usage, stability, security and updatability. ^[1][2]

Developer Services 

• New developer features for Google and third party app developers to support ads, accessibility, analytics & diagnostics and machine learning & AI, and security & privacy related developer services in their apps. ^[2]

_{[1] Available through Google Play system update for March.
[2] Available through Google Play services v22.09 updated on 03/01/2022.
[3] Available through Google Play Store v29.5 updated on 03/01/2022.}

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