Google has big new ideas about the Play Store

Google is bringing a handful of new features to its Google Play store on Android today. There are new categorized “Collections” that highlight content from apps you’ve already installed. The company’s reward program is adding more prizes, including Pixel hardware. Google’s Play Pass subscription service is introducing more versatile gaming capabilities. And in Japan, Google is rolling out a curated space for comics, which will let people dive into first chapter previews without needing to install third-party apps first.

Taken together, these changes are intended to make Google Play “an end-to-end experience that’s more than a store.”

The company previewed some of the latest updates at a media briefing in New York City on Tuesday. Google Play VP Sam Bright highlighted a few upgrades announced back at I/O such as AI-generated app reviews. Those AI features are being expanded with a new tool that will make it simpler to compare apps in similar categories (like photo editing software or fitness apps).

Then Bright moved on to some of the bigger new features. First is a new section of Google Play called Collections.

Rather than try to sell you on new apps, Collections are designed to surface content from those you’ve already installed and organize everything into categories like shop, watch, and listen. You’ll see a “continue watching” row for various streaming apps, plus the latest deals from select retailers. “With your app content in one place, it’s easier to pick up right where you left off,” Google’s blog post reads.

Gaming is another big focus of today’s updates. When searching, you can now select from a list of interest filters to refine the types of games that Play suggests. And starting today, Play Games users on PC are able to play multiple titles at the same time, so you can get your Clash of Clans fix in one window while playing another game elsewhere onscreen. Google launched Play Games for PC as a beta in 2022 and has continued to iterate on it with 4K support and now this.

Google is also trying to make its Play Points reward program more appealing by adding “super weekly prizes.” Available to gold, platinum, and diamond members, these level up the usual prizes by throwing Pixel devices, Razer gaming products, and other hardware into the mix. Prizes will rotate on a weekly basis and can be claimed from the Play Points perks tab.

Android customers in Japan are getting a new curated space in Google Play that’s entirely devoted to comics. “You can access comics-related content all in one place — including free first chapter previews, live events and trailers, editor picks and fan reviews even from apps you haven’t installed,” Google’s blog post reads. A new “comics” tab is coming right to the Google Play homescreen. The company is continuing to explore how it can best use these curated spaces in other regions; the first example was a cricket section in India.

Importantly, Google is also giving everyone greater control over exactly what data is used for Play’s personalized recommendations. Now, you can choose apps that might contain sensitive data that you don’t want to be factored into the store’s personalization algorithms. You can find this option by navigating to “Personalization in Play” from the main menu.

Will these new features lead to people spending more time in Google Play? Perhaps, but many of them (like Collections) are easy to ignore if you prefer to keep using it as a destination for apps like always.