Essentially the apps have same package name but different signatures and the app store that installed it should be the only one to recognize and update it.
But Google is likely trying this dark pattern to sway people away from F-Droid or alt stores by making users uninstall these apps and install it from the Google Play Store.
It’s been going on for a while and is annoying af.
It’s a problem of trust. Differing signature is an indication of third party tampering. People shouldn’t start to see difference in signatures as an ordinary occurrence. It should be an high alert event.
Nope.
Often versions on Play Store are slightly different (telemetry). Sometimes they even have different versioning.
Then, using a different package name should be a good solution, wouldn’t it?