Google Play Store

Google has unceremoniously revamped the dedicated Wear OS Play Store landing page giving more prominence to featured apps and watchfaces on the wearable platform.

Google told developers that it would deprecate the legacy method for installing Wear OS apps in March. Existing users of the Android-based wearable platform have yet to be impacted, but those setting up new watches or repairing are getting hit by this change.

In 2019, the Google Play Store received a Material Theme redesign that was followed by a dark mode. The next major revamp is here and sees new navigation, as well as revamped settings.

In August of last year, Google announced that it would allow more kinds of Android Auto apps on the Play Store. Developers can now publicly release new navigation, parking, and charging apps for Android Auto.

Google today announced a series of policy updates for apps distributed through the Play Store. The most impactful sees Google limit most developers from seeing which Android apps are installed on your device.

Google announced today that it will be reducing the commission it takes from Android developers that distribute paid applications and offer in-app purchases through the Play Store. The service fee on the first $1 million (USD) in revenue every year will be lowered from 30% to 15%.

For over a year now, Google has been hard at work on Nearby Sharing, a handy way to share things like files, contacts, and more with nearby Android devices — and Chrome. Today, the Google Play Store now offers the best example of Nearby Sharing, allowing you to share apps and updates between devices.

In the early days of Google’s wearable platform, smartwatch apps were bundled with their phone counterparts. Android Wear 2.0 moved to a standalone app model as part of introducing the on-device Play Store. Google now plans to deprecate that legacy approach to Wear OS apps next month.

As of last year, downloading certain apps from the Play Store on Chrome OS would automatically “install” the Progressive Web App. The latest service to follow this PWA approach is YouTube Music, though Google is taking a circuitous route with a separate Chromebook listing.

Today, Google Play announced an upcoming policy change that will allow gambling and betting Android apps in more countries. These applications are currently only available in four stores around the world.

New chart position icons have now joined the Google Play Store, making it easier than ever to track the rise and fall of specific applications within category leaderboards.

Despite the fact that Google Photos is the “premiere” photo-focused product from Google, Gallery Go is the lightweight, offline alternative for those with modest Android hardware on offer. Having only been released around 18 months ago, Gallery Go has now amassed 50 million downloads on the Google Play Store.

One thing Google and Android does well is easter eggs, whether it’s the Android logo mini-games or even the in-built Dino game you’ll find in all versions of Google Chrome. Thanks to some intrepid code diggers, it looks like we might see a Google Play Store easter egg being incubated before a future “hatching.”

Over a year ago Google rolled out a completely redesigned Play Store for Android TV, and now the company is giving it a couple of tweaks. Rolling out now, the Play Store for Android TV and, by extension, Google TV, is getting a slight redesign. Here’s what’s new.