A method and apparatus for updating an application are disclosed. According to the method, an update tag corresponding to a target application is pushed to a terminal when determining that the target application is required to be updated, the target application being an application downloaded and installed in the background of the terminal. An acquisition request sent by the terminal based on the update tag is received, the acquisition request being used for requesting to acquire target update content corresponding to the target application. The target update content is pushed to the terminal based on the update tag, such that the terminal opens the target application of a latest version by loading the target update content.