General question
I have an app X installed on my device in version Y. I don't want to update it to any newer version (Y+z) for some reason. Still, the Google Play Store app always lists updates for X, which keeps me from a simple "update all". My question, put to a single sentence:
How to hide updates for X permanently from the "available updates" list?
Specific examples
First, I know there are alternatives as e.g. the AppBrain Market App, which can handle this quite well (skip this update, skip all future updates). I prefer a "generic solution", which does not depend on a 3rd party's market app.
Second, I know that Titanium Backup includes a "Market doctor", which can be used to disconnect an app from Google Play.1 However, in my specific case that only worked for a few hours: I disconnected GTalk, as I don't want it replaced by Hangouts. The update notification disappeared for a few hours, then it was back. No idea what restored the "link".
Third, just to make sure: I'm not talking about the "auto update" feature as discussed e.g. in How to enable Play Store auto-update for just a few apps?. I was rather hoping for something close to Does the google play store not provide updates for frozen apps?, but without the need to "freeze" the app in question (which I still want to use, but in the version installed, not in a "future version" available).
Fourth: No, uninstalling the app in question is no option here, though it would perfectly hide any future updates from being displayed :) Nor is "freezing", as the app is used regularly.
Fifth: There is a related question for my GTalk example: Do apps included in the gApps zip get updated via Google Play? However, I want the opposite: No update.
It might very well be that "Google Apps" (and other pre-installed apps) are handled in some specific way, and restore their "market links" themselves somehow. For this case, my question includes: How to prevent that from happening?
Update
There's a thread at XDA discussing the very same issue. Until recently, a work-around for "user installed apps" was to uninstall them and then sideload the .apk – but even that stopped working. Well, re-signing the .apk with a different key might work for user-apps. But both would fail for pre-installed apps (can't sideload them to override; different signature would refuse that install completely).
Moreover, there's an issue filed on this by some "joel.bou..". Not hard to guess, though blanked out: that would be Joël Bourquard. If it's really him, then that's really an issue (for those who don't know: Joël is the dev behind Titanium Backup). Let me quote from the issue:
For the record: in the Android Market days it was possible to "Attach" or "Detach" apps (on rooted devices) with a system tool such as Titanium Backup. But nowadays (with the Google Play Store app) this has become nearly impossible to do, because the complete app list seems to sync from Google's servers and the user has no control over that.
Which explains why detaching with apps like Titanium Backup is no longer permanent. And I'm afraid I've asked the impossible. But I thought the same in the past with other questions, and surprisingly got solutions here. So I do not yet give up hope on this one!
1: what that does is explained by eldarerathis in this post (thanks to Firelord for digging that up!)
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