Skip to main content

2017 Google Play Award winners excel in design, functionality, delightfulness

play store notifications google
Christian de Looper/Digital Trends
Last year, Google hosted its inaugural Google Play Awards at Google I/O, its annual developer conference in Mountain View, California, during which it crowned the year’s best Play Store games and apps. And this year, it announced the winners of the second annual competition at an gala on Thursday evening.

The competition was fierce. The contenders were broken out over 12 categories, and had to adhere to a set of criteria for consideration. All had to have high user ratings, pass Google’s bars for technical performance, and have received an update or been launched since April of last year.

Recommended Videos

Memrise took home the Best App category, thanks to a “beautiful design,” “intuitive [interface]” and “high user appeal.” The judging panel was especially impressed by its creativity — users are tasked with “duping enemy agents” in a “distant Universe” by demonstrating mastery of languages including French, Spanish, German, English, Chinese, Japanese, and more.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Best Game award went to Transformers: Forged to Fight by Kabam, which won Google’s judges over with “strong mechanics,” “stellar graphics,” “strong engagement,” and “retention tactics.”

In the Standout Indie category, Mushroom 11 took the crown for “artistic design,” “gameplay mechanics,” and “overall polish.” A combination of intuitive touch controls, challenging puzzles, eerily beautiful visuals, and ethereal electronica music by The Future Sound of London sealed the deal.

The Standout Startup category went to Hooked by Telepathic, which “offers a unique experience” while “achieving strong organic install growth.” The Google team was impressed by the app’s innovative method of storytelling — spooky thrillers unfold message by message over a series of texts.

best android apps
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Runtastic got the Best Android Wear Experience award — Google praised its “great design,” ability to “delight,” and “functionality.” The judging panel lavished special praise on its robust activity tracking, audio coach, leaderboard features, built-in music player, and integration with Google’s Fit platform.

The Best VR Experience award went to Virtual Virtual Reality by Tender Claws, which Google’s judges called “highly immersive.” The inventive title, which runs on Google’s Daydream VR platform, tasks players with tasks like jumping between realities and “vacuuming up” worlds.

WOORLD by Funomena won the Best AR Experience. Its “creative” and “imaginative” technology, pioneered with the help of Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, was one of the most effective uses of Googles’s depth-sensing, spatial-tracking Tango technology in Google Play, the judging panel said.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Red Bull TV won the best TV Experience for its “large-screen format” and “intuitive experience.” Google noted that the it adhered closely to Android’s style guideline, and made especially good use of Android TV’s built-in search functions.

The competition’s other winners included ShareTheMeal by the United Nations, which won Best Social Impact for affecting “meaningful” social change for “people around the world”; IFTTT, which took home the Best Accessibility Experience award for “[serving] people with disabilities” and “special needs”; Animal Jam by WildWorks, which won Best App for Kids for encouraging “creativity,” “exploration,” and “education”; and Blizzard’s Hearthstone trading card game, which won the Best Multiplayer Award.

The Google Play store is a big deal — it’s the primary way the more than 2 billion Android users around the world find and update apps and games. It’s estimated to generate more than $3.3 billion in revenue annually, and Google said that over the past year alone, more than 85 billion apps and gamest were downloaded on Google Play.

Kyle Wiggers
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…
This Google Pixel 8a leak just spoiled everything about the phone
A person holding the Google Pixel 8, showing the back of the phone.

Previous leaked render of the Google Pixel 8a. Smart Prix

We are, in theory, only just over a month away from an official unveiling of Google's newest midrange smartphone, the Google Pixel 8a. However, it seems you won't have to wait until Google I/O 2024 to find out what Google has planned, as a leaker has just revealed everything we need to know about the latest entry in the Pixel roster.

Read more
Google I/O 2023 is happening on May 10 with an in-person event

It's that time of year once again. The days are getting longer, the gray skies of winter are slowly fading away, and it's almost time for another Google I/O. While it's a given that we have a new I/O each year, Google always puts on a little show when announcing the date for the next one. And now, we officially know when Google I/O 2023 will take place.

The opening keynote for this year's I/O is taking place at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. In its email confirming the time and date, Google says, "Join a select audience to learn about Google’s latest innovations and developer solutions that help you work smarter and improve productivity." The opening keynote for I/O 2023 — where most of the big news and announcements are revealed — kicks off at 10 a.m. PT on May 10.

Read more
The Game Awards delivered dazzling trailers, but winners played second-fiddle
God of War Ragnarok's Christopher Judge hugs Al Pacino at The Game Awards.

If the goal of the modern awards show is to make "moments," then The Game Awards 2022 certainly rose to the occasion -- and then some. The Geoff Keighley-produced ceremony was among the show's best overall efforts yet, packing in an excellent slate of reveals, some genuine surprises, and enough "WTF" moments to make headlines even at mainstream publications that don't normally pay attention to the world of gaming.

While it may have been a particularly exciting show for fans and casual viewers, it was an uneven ceremony when it came to the actual awards. Rushed winner announcements and speeches took a back seat to flashy trailers over the course of the night. That certainly isn't new for the nine-year-old show, which has built its reputation on providing E3-calibur announcements, but awards felt like a noticeably low priority during the broadcast.

Read more