It seems more design and layout changes are incoming for the Google Play Store. The latest of which sees an adjustment to how app search results are displayed, with the new layout not only looking to highlight the apps the Play Store thinks you are searching for, but also how much interaction you can have with the app listing before actually clicking through to the app listing.
In terms of the search results aspect, now when searching for an app and unlike before when apps were simply presented in a uniformed manner, the displaying of search results include a much more prominent placement of the most likely app result. So for instance, and as the image below highlights, if you search for “booking” then the results do come back with the Booking.com Android app taking pride of place – in a much larger card format with clear “More Info” and “Install” options listed. Of course, “Open” will be shown instead of “Install” if you already have the app installed on your device. However, this is only the first part of the change as not only is the card more prominently placed and larger, but it is slightly more interactive as well. For instance, you can actually scroll through the screenshots without having to click to open the app listing. Likewise if there is a video available on the original app listing page, then that is also shown in view and you can click to start playing the video. Although, the video does not play in frame and instead will launch the YouTube app.
At the moment, this seems to be an update which is in the process of rolling out to everyone and so there is little to do on the end user side. If you have yet to see the change taking place, you likely will very soon. It is also worth pointing out that not all search terms come back with the new layout. So for instance, while “booking” does bring up Booking.com in the new format, “flights” or “hotels” do not bring up the new format and will still show app listings in the old (uniformed) style. Likewise, even more refined searches like the actual full name of an app does not always help. For instance, while “Google Trips” brings back to the new results layout, “Google Maps” does not. So if you are checking to see if you have the new layout already, it is worth doing a few checks if you do not see the new layout on the first try.
