For a long time now, the Google Play Store has been the beating heart of Android, providing users with all kinds of apps and games, as well as music, movies, TV shows and books. Androdi veterans will remember the Play Store as the Android Market, which was only good for apps and games. Since then of course, the Play Store has evolved into something much more than that, and with these latest changes to the Play Store app, it appears as though Google is looking to push the entertainment side of things a little more. The design and layout of the Play Store app on Android has gone through a number of evolutions over the years, and this latest change is a good bit different from previous versions of the app.
Some user are seeing a change in the way that the Play Store presents the Apps & Games and Entertainment banners. Now, in this new look for the Play Store, the Entertainment category is be renamed “Movies, Music, Books” which certainly pushes the fact that Google has all of those things on offer, which the perhaps-vague “Entertainment” banner didn’t across, but it’s not the prettiest of layouts for a header. On top of this, the carousel that shows off key games or hit TV shows just below the top Google Play bar now appears a little cleaner, as the items themselves are smaller, and seem to be set back away from the rest of the UI. Whether or not this is a change for the better will depend on the user, but the card design is alive and well here, and Google looks to be focusing on cleaning things up. A larger banner also appears when you click on a Play Store link from within another app, putting the Google Play branding front and center.
These changes are subtle, absolutely, but they’re the sort of changes that show Google is looking to push their entertainment content a lot more than they have done in the past. Whether or not this means users will be more likely to purchase content like this from the Play Store is unknown, but it’s worth a shot on Google’s part, especially given how successful Apple’s iTunes store continues to be for content besides apps and games.
