The Google Play Store is a treasure trove of apps, but it can be hard to find the diamonds in the rough. Thankfully, the platform has a lot of great resources to help you out, including monthly editorial picks, new releases, and a kid-friendlyprogram for teacher-approved app selection. Google is now adding video to the mix with “The Play Report,” a new Shorts-style series highlighting thelatest and greatest Android apps, including hidden gems that you might not have found otherwise.
Google Playis dropping the new video series to help you find the apps and games you like. The series will highlight new releases, top picks, and hidden gems, all curated by Google’s editorial team. Play Report videos will be displayed prominently at the top of the Play Store homepage for select users in the United States, similar to howYouTube Shortsappear on YouTube’s homepage on desktop.
Multiple episodes will be available for each series, hosted by “expert voices, from creators to Googlers,” according to a Googleblog post. At the moment, however, only announcement videos are available, but Google says new episodes will be released over the next few weeks. Those who aren’t currently a part of the pilot will continue to see the usual promotional cards at the top of the Play Store, but they can watch the videos via the platform’s YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram accounts.
Google wants to save you time by letting experts tell you which apps and games are worth your time and attention, so you can spend less time scrolling. The search giant hopes to make app discovery quite a breeze with its new video series.
The videos include an action button at the bottom of the screen to quickly download and install the app being promoted. Meanwhile, Google previously took a somewhat perplexing approach to app discovery byconcealing the useful install button for some apps in the Play Store’s search results. This forces users to navigate to the full app listing in order to install it. However, this behavior isn’t present for all results and apps.
