Material Design is making the jump from Android L enabled devices today(which only includes the Nexus 5 and 2013 Nexus 7)in the form of the new Play Store update that they have just begun pushing out to users. We have the download for you of course but here’s what’s new and what changes can be expected. The most obvious changes will be the new look. Google’s Material Design is equal parts inspiring as it is gorgeous, while also letting users have just a little taste of what Material Design will bring to the Android UI and style as a whole when Android L launches later this year in the fall.This update brings the Play Store up to version 4.9.13, so be sure to check your Play Store build version from the Apps section in settings and if you’re not on the latest, go ahead and update by downloading the file here.
If you prefer to wait for the update to roll out to you over the air you’re more than welcome, but there’s no need to wait if you want to get a head start on what the update has to offer. After updating the Play Store app, you’ll notice that going into app and other content sections of the Play Store will be sporting the new Material Design look, with bigger and more lush images for the banners, as well as larger images for the screenshots of what the apps or games look like. There also seems to be a change with the text used in the descriptions and for everything else listed on any content, seemingly using the new revised roboto font that can be found inside of Android L. That is just a guess of course but it does look a little bit different to me personally.
Upon opening a game or app, there are now icons displayed just below the banner image and the install button, dedicated to the “star rating” of the app with the listed amount of total comments, as well as icons with a denotation of what genre or category of game/app you’re viewing. Lastly there is a third icon labeled as “similar”. All of these icons are actually buttons which you can interact with by tapping on them. Tapping the Star rating will now take you to the comments section, although you can still view comments and ratings down below in the same place, while tapping on the “genre” button or the category classification under which that game/app sits will take you to other types of games/apps that are part of the same genre. Appropriately, tapping on the “similar” button will take you to similar games(or apps, or any other type of content depending on what you’re viewing)but they won’t necessarily be of the same category sub-class. If you have people that you circle or that circle you, their +1’s will be listed in between the category button and the similar apps button as well.
Videos for apps or games or any of the content is no longer sectioned with the images. If any content has a video it is now integrated as part of the banner image that can be seen at the top of the app/game/book/music/video page. Literally everything about the Play Store’s design has been redone, and it looks infinitely better. Not that it looked bad before but now everything feels more fluid. The app descriptions for example are the full length of the page, so no more having to tap a little button to expand the description and finish reading, now you just have to initially tap the “read more” button to open the description from the get go but afterwards the entire set of text is on the page. If you’re eager to get your hands on it as we stated you can download the new Play Store here from the link, and check out the screenshots posted below.
