No matter what consumers do with their Android smartphone or tablet, the Play Store is a one stop shop for most users as it’s a window to all sorts of different functions thanks to the constantly growing library of apps. The Play Store has recently started going through some visual tweaks, although not everyone has received the new look just yet, and as of today a new version of the Play Store has started to roll out that displays some upcoming changes and functionality that users can look forward to alongside the visual update, not the least of which is the ability to add credit cards as a form of payment via NFC instead of manually entering in the data or using your camera to snap an image.
Although not available in this latest Play Store app update which brings users forward to version 5.3, adding cards as a form of payment for content through NFC is an option that’s on the way at some point in the future it looks like, however, users will of course need to have a credit or debit card that is NFC enabled for the phone to recognize it. Also on the way will be option for gifting content to other users, which is something we’ve already seen Google do with Play Music subscriptions. With these new gifting options it seems like users will be able to pick any piece of paid content from the Play Store like apps, or games for example, and send that gift to someone by entering in their email address that associated with the Play Store. The person can then either accept or reject the gift as well.
The other big upcoming feature within the Play Store is something called Family Library, which would allow users to share purchased content with others. The way this particular feature will work is such that one person could create a “family” so to speak that they could add and remove members to and from. It’s still uncertain whether or not people will need to actually be family but it’s quite likely Google won’t be imposing such a restriction on users and will probably allow them to add whoever they wish, while also letting whoever created the group have control over management of spending on content and other certain factors. Both gifting and family accounts are functions that users have been wanting for quite some time, so hopefully the features will turn up sooner than later.