We’ve got bad news for folks who use the Google Shopping mobile app on iOS and Android: Its days are numbered.
Google confirmed to 9to5Google on Friday that the bespoke Shopping mobile app would no longer be supported “within the next few weeks,” per a company spokesperson. The apps themselves will apparently work through the month of June, but anyone who still uses them as a primary source of online shopping should probably prepare for a world in which that will no longer be possible.
The good news here is that none of that functionality is actually going away. Google Shopping also exists in web form and Google’s putting all its effort into that going forward. It’s simply a matter of opening Chrome instead of opening the Shopping app now.
Google Shopping’s Android app used to be known as Express until a rebrand in 2019. Before Google confirmed the app’s impending death late last week, users started experiencing “Something went wrong” error messages that directed them to visit the web version instead. Regardless of where it lives, Google will keep building out features like trying on makeup using augmented reality, which came in an update in December.
Nothing is actually being lost here in the grand scheme of things, but we figured we’d flag this for Google Shopping users just in case they open the app one day and find a digital ghost town. You better get used to doing all of that business in Chrome instead.