Has 'Ubuntu Software' been renamed to 'Snap Store'?

There are two different software apps in Ubuntu 20.04, Software enter image description here and Snap Store enter image description here . The Snap Store and the Software app can be installed alongside each other without removing either app. If Ubuntu Software got removed in 20.04 it can be reinstalled by running sudo apt install gnome-software. If the snap-store is not currently installed it can be installed if by running sudo snap install snap-store.

All the apps in the Snap Store are snap packages. If you're searching for a snap package it's more convenient to search for it in the Snap Store, because sometimes the same app has two packages in Ubuntu Software, an apt package and a snap package, but the same app has only one snap package in the Snap Store. If you're searching for an apt package and don't want to use the terminal you may want to install the old Ubuntu Software app with sudo apt install gnome-software. When you install the gnome-software package in Ubuntu 20.04 it is named Software, and the app that was named Ubuntu Software in the default installation is renamed as Snap Store.

The Snap Store itself is a snap package, so it can be installed in any Linux distribution that supports snap packages without causing package management issues. snapd has been ported to a wide range of Linux distributions to enable snaps to be used across any Linux distribution, including Debian, Kali Linux, Raspbian, Fedora, CentOS, Arch Linux, Manjaro Linux, and openSUSE.

enter image description here
Snap Store


Canonical replaced the old snap store in Ubuntu with their own snap version (it was a rather controversial decision). To replace it with old version use:

snap remove snap-store
sudo apt-get install gnome-software

It will remove the new version of the store and install a classic one. If you still want to use snap packages then:

sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-snap

It will add support of snap, but if you prefer Flatpak then:

sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Then restart.


I found exactly the same issue today, no 'Ubuntu Software' after the last update on Ubuntu 20.04, but Snap Store got installed. So, it looks like a bug.

sudo apt install gnome-software

is solving the problem.


None of these answers actually restored the orange icon to refer to the snap-store snap as was originally installed, and the way it was intended to be by Canonical.

The actual way to do this if you have the "Snap Store" app with the blue-green icon is to run snap refresh snap-store --channel=stable/ubuntu-20.04

Then you will once again have an orange icon called "Ubuntu Software" which opens snap-store snap.

I think there was an update that fixed this bug on its own, but if you messed with stuff to try to fix it, you might be stuck with the "Snap Store" like I was.