Skip to main content

The Google Play app on your Android phone is getting a huge update

Google Play on the Oppo Find N2.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Google Play app on your Android phone is about to get its biggest update in a long time. The announcements came earlier today, with Google saying its end goal is to transform the user experience on the Google Play app, to turn it into more than just a place to download apps.

To do this, Google is implementing various changes and new features, including curated spaces, the ability to list specific interests when searching for new apps and games, and new privacy and app recommendation controls. Let’s dive into some of them.

AI

Recommended Videos

The first big thing is, naturally, AI, which Google first announced during Google I/O earlier this year. The AI implementation will let you use AI to browse and display app reviews and compare apps in similar categories. The AI can also provide highlights about the app, making it easier to read and find what’s relevant to you.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

It sounds rather similar to Amazon’s implementation of AI into the product pages, where the AI can process user reviews and give you a general overview of the pros, cons, and common user complaints about a particular product.

Curated spaces

The other big change comes from curated spaces. Google Play will give you a single place to find all the apps on a specific subject. That could be anything ranging from sports, like cricket for fans in India, to comic books for fans in Japan.

The curated spaces will let you access all related content in one place, including things like free chapter previews for comics, live events and trailers, editor picks, and fan reviews from apps you haven’t installed yet.

Multi-select interest filters

User interest is a big focus. Google is adding filters like genre that will let you specify your preferences when searching for a new game without having to browse the app charts.

Google Play Games for PC

Google Play Games multi-game.
Google Play Games multi-game Google via Droid Life

PC users aren’t left out in the cold, either. A few years back, Google added PC support to Google Play Games with the Google Play Games beta desktop app, allowing you to play Android games on your PC. Over the course of the next several weeks, Google is rolling out multi-game capabilities that will let you play two games simultaneously and competitively — essentially giving users multiplayer support.

Collections

Next, we have collections in the form of a widget that you can add to your home screen. This widget will show your downloaded apps, books, TV shows, and other content, letting you easily jump back into what you were doing. This was something that existed in the Nexus 7 era, so it’s nice to see it come back and roll out to all users.

Play Points

The Play Point system was first launched in 2018, allowing members to earn points for purchases on the Google Play Store. Generally speaking, there weren’t a lot of great things to get. That’s set to change with Google rolling out weekly events called Super Weekly Prizes. Users will now be able to enter drawings for a physical prize, which could include various Pixel gear like a Pixel Watch, Pixel Buds Pro, and even phones. The drawing will only be available to Gold, Platinum, and Diamond members and only for users in the U.S., U.K., Japan, South Korea, or Taiwan.

New controls

Less exciting, though still important, Google is giving you control over app data. You’ll be able to head to Personalization in Play on the main menu to find the new controls that will let you pick which apps are used inside Google Play.

Ajay Kumar
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ajay has worked in tech journalism for more than a decade as a reporter, analyst, and editor.
Google Photos will add a hidden watermark to your AI-edited images
About this image data for photos.

Google’s bet on AI is no secret, and it becomes evident the moment you launch any of its software products. The Google Photos app has been one of the earliest recipients of all this AI love. Now, it’s time for some transparency.

Remember Magic Editor, your gateway to AI-powered editing in the Google Photos app? Moving forward, images that have received an AI makeover using the Reimagine tool in Magic Editor will get an invisible watermark.

Read more
iPhone 7 owners are getting $200 in class action lawsuit, and here’s how you can track yours
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

Settlement payout from the iPhone 7 class action lawsuit against Apple are starting to roll out. Those who participated in the class action lawsuit have started to receive payments, with amounts varying based on whether you spent any money on repairing the iPhone 7 or the iPhone 7 Plus.

Some of the co-applicants in the lawsuit have started to receive around $200 as part payment from the $35 million settlement, 9to5Mac reported. While the payout is less than the maximum of $350 initially approved by the court, it should still feel satisfactory to the appellants.

Read more
Google brings second-gen AI models to the Gemini mobile app
AI Model selector option in the Gemini mobile app for iPhones.

Earlier today, Google made a few notable AI announcements, at a time when the tech industry is peeling the layers of China’s DeepSeek AI and the search giant is staring at anti-trust heat in China. The latest from Google is an experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Pro, which is claimed to be the company’s latest and greatest so far.

“It has the strongest coding performance and ability to handle complex prompts, with better understanding and reasoning of world knowledge, than any model we’ve released so far,” says the company. This one raises the prompt context window to 2 million tokens, allowing it to ingest and comprehend massive inputs with ease.

Read more