Google Play Store Revamp: AI Integration, Enhanced Gaming Experience, and Personalized Content

Google's big Play Store revamp includes better gamer profiles, Gemini Live in-game help

The era of Google's Play's unrivaled dominance may be coming to an end in the wake of the company's antitrust loss, but Google's app store isn't going anywhere. In fact, the Play Store experience is getting a massive update with more personalization, content, and yes, AI. This is Google, after all. The revamped Google Play Games is a key part of this update. Gamer profiles will now have a public face, allowing you to interact with other players if you choose. Play Games will track your activity for daily streaks, which will be shown on your profile and unlock new Play Points rewards. Your profile will also display your in-game achievements. Your gaming exploits can also span multiple platforms. Google Play Games for PC is officially leaving beta. Google says there are now 200,000 games that work across mobile and PC, and even more PC-friendly titles, like Deep Rock Galactic Survivor, are on the way. Your stats and streaks will apply across both mobile and PC as long as the title comes from the Play Store. At the core of Google's app store revamp is the You Tab, which will soon take its place in the main navigation bar of the Play Store. This page will show your rewards, subscriptions, game, stats, and more -- and it goes beyond gaming. The You Tab will recommend a variety of content on Google Play, including books and podcasts. You may also see new "entertainment spaces" in the Play Store based on the successful Cricket Hub in India and Comics space in Japan. The spaces will appear (somewhat confusingly) in the Apps tab to surface movies, TV shows, comics, and short-form video designed for mobile. South Korea will be getting the first new space focused on mobile-optimized dramas, but the US will have new entertainment spaces soon. Google Play's redesign will even follow you when you leave the client. Android devices will be getting a new in-game overlay called Sidekick. This scrollable pop-over is jam-packed with achievements, device settings toggles, and Play Points offers. Most importantly, it's where you'll find the new Gemini Live shortcut. Tab that, and Gemini will see your screen and be ready to help with suggestions and tips. It's unclear how much use Gemini in Sidekick will be. You can use Gemini Live screen sharing right now, but the robot rarely has anything useful to say about your gameplay. Many phones also already have their own in-game overlay to control performance, notifications, or streaming. You may have to disable the Play Store or OEM overlay unless you want two floating handles on your screen while gaming. Google says these changes will begin rolling out in select markets this week. However, the Gemini Live component of Sidekick will take a bit longer. Sidekick's AI will begin appearing with support for select games in the coming months.

Google revamps its Play Store with AI features and more | TechCrunch

Google said Tuesday it's making a number of changes to how the Play Store looks and functions in an effort to better personalize the store to its users and increase engagement. Among the new features is a redesigned Apps tab, a new Play Games experience, a new tab focused on your interests, and other features that leverage Gemini AI. The update builds on other recent additions that aim to make the Play Store more of a destination -- like a tab that shows you where you can watch your favorite shows or Collections, which organizes your favorite apps and games into areas like shop, watch, and listen, Google Play Games VP and General Manager Aurash Mahbood explained to TechCrunch in a press briefing. "For over 4 billion users, Google Play is an important gateway to discovering apps, games, books, movies, TV, and timely cultural content, and our ambition is to help all users engage with the apps and content that fuel their needs and interests," he said in a press briefing ahead of today's launch. Not surprisingly, the update is adding AI-powered functionality to the Play Store. With a feature called Guided Search, users can find the app or game they want to try by typing in a goal or idea instead of the app's name. For example, a user could type in "find a home" to be pointed to real estate apps. The Play Store's Apps tab is also being updated to include new "curated spaces" dedicated to seasonal topics and those tailored to a user's interests. These could pull in content from multiple apps, Google says. In the U.S., content related to the WNBA will be featured here, for instance. This expansion follows the launch of curated spaces in India and Japan, which had focused on regional interests like cricket and comics, respectively. Korean users will also gain a curated space focused on video content, offering a mix of movies, TV shows, and short-form video, including drama and serialized stories. Google notes that short-form content is the most frequently consumed media format on smartphones. A new You tab aims to attract users to engage with the Play Store more frequently, as it will offer a centralized place for tracking subscriptions, rewards (like Play Points), recommendations, stats, and updates. Notably, the tab will offer recommendations related to your interests, like movies or shows, podcasts, ebooks or audiobooks, and make it easier to jump back into what you were reading, listening to, or watching last. Gamers will also see their new gamer profile in this tab, which organizes stats and achievements across games and devices. These profiles can also now be customized with a Gen AI avatar. New features for gamers are also rolling out after the launch of the new Games app that shipped with Android rival Apple's iOS 26 release. Now, the Games tab will centralize stat and achievement tracking, rewards, and community into one place. Play Games Leagues will allow users to challenge their friends and compete for Play Points rewards. This kicks off with the first league dedicated to the popular title Subway Surfers, which will run from October 10 through October 23. However, the more interesting update is the addition of the AI-enabled Play Games Sidekick. This is a new in-game overlay that you can access to get real-time gaming assistance from Gemini Live. The idea is that you can ask Gemini for help when you get stuck in a game and need guidance or tips. The feature builds on the work Google showcased with DeepMind in December, where the company showed off how it was developing AI agents across domains, including gaming. "Instead of having to leave the game to seek out tutorials or walkthroughs, we're leveraging the latest Gemini audio-to-audio model to help understand your gaming context, providing you quick responses and encouragement," said Mahbood. The Sidekick will also curate and organize other relevant gaming info in one place, so you can stay in the game. Initially, the feature will be supported in games from EA and Netmarble, including Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, FC Mobile, and Solo Leveling: Arise. Also new are the enhanced Game Detail Pages, which will showcase information about the title, including ongoing events, developer updates, and offers. Next month, gamers will also be able to ask questions and share answers on this page to provide or get help from other gamers. The Google Play Games on PC offering, which brings more than 200,000 titles to Windows desktops, is exiting beta today, too, Google said.

Google Play is getting AI-sorted search results, a 'You' tab and short-form K-dramas

Google is announcing several updates to Google Play in an attempt to shift the app store from "a place to download apps" to "an experience." Many of the changes are powered by AI, and most seem like a preemptive attempt to keep the Play Store attractive for users now that it seems increasingly possible Google will be forced to open up Android to third-party app stores. The most visible update Google is introducing to Google Play is a new tab. It's called the "You Tab" and it acts like a combination of a profile page and a For You tab, specifically for app store content. You can access Google's universal game profiles from the tab -- part of larger gaming-focused updates Google is bringing to Google Play -- along with app recommendations and content recommendations from streaming apps available through the Play Store. The tab seems relatively easy to ignore if you just want to download apps, but Google thinks users could turn to it as a curation tool and a way to take advantage of deals. The company is also expanding the ways you can find apps. New regional sections will collect apps and content based on specific interests or seasonal topics. Google has tried a "Cricket Hub" in India and a Comics section in Japan, and now it's bringing an Entertainment section to Korea that will collect short-form video apps, webcomics and streaming services into a single home. Interestingly, Google is making content from these apps available to sample directly in Google Play, and not just in Korea. You'll be able to read webcomics and watch short-form K-dramas directly in Google Play, without having to download an additional app in the US, too. When you're looking for something in particular, a new "Guided Search" feature will let you search for a goal (for example, "buy a house") and receive results that are organized into specific categories by Gemini. Those Gemini-based improvements will also extend to individual app pages, where Google continues to expand the availability of its "Ask Play" feature. Ask Play lets you ask questions about an app and receive AI-generated responses, a bit like the Rufus AI chatbot Amazon includes in its store pages. Google's Play Store updates start rolling out this week in countries where the company's Play Points program is available, like the US, the UK, Japan and Korea. They'll come to "additional countries" on October 1, according to Google.

Google Is Hoping to Fix Its Biggest Play Store Problem

Summary Apps tab gets a personalized makeover with sections for entertainment, seasonal picks, and trending short content. Guided Search lets you enter goals (like 'find a home') and get AI-curated apps and timely highlights. Play Games unifies profiles, Play Points, leagues, and adds a Gemini-powered in-game Sidekick for real-time help. Considering it's owned by a company known for search, it's notoriously difficult to find stuff in the Google Play Store. Google is rolling out a few changes that might make the whole experience a lot less painful. First, the "Apps" tab is getting a makeover, and it's about making the experience more personal. Google is adding new dedicated sections for things like entertainment and seasonal topics. If you're in the US, that means you can now sample webcomics, trending TV shows, and short-form content right from the Apps tab. Google is also introducing something called "Guided Search," which lets you type in an intent, like "find a home," rather than a specific app name, and the Play Store's AI will give you apps that fit (Zillow, Trulia, etc). For timely topics, you'll see curated content highlighted at the top of the Apps tab, covering things like the WNBA playoffs or Halloween. Moving on to Google Play Games, which many people only know as the section of the Play Store with games. If you're more familiar with it, you may feel like it's very disjointed. Google is hoping to upgrade the gaming experience to make it into more of a single, cohesive platform. You'll be able to track your stats and achievements across games and devices, all from one new profile. Google Play Games will now combine all of your Play Points into one place so that you can earn rewards across both mobile and PC. Google is also introducing "Play Games Leagues" for competing with friends for Play Points. The first of these Leagues will feature Subway Surfers in October. One of the most interesting new features is called the "Play Games Sidekick," an in-game overlay that's available while you're playing a game that has been downloaded from the Play Store. The Sidekick can understand the context of your game by using Gemini Live's screen-sharing capabilities. Instead of leaving your game to search for a walkthrough or tutorial online, you can ask Gemini for real-time, conversational help. The upgraded gaming platform and the new "You" tab will start rolling out this week in select markets. Google is clearly trying to position the Play Store into more than a simple app store, but we'll have to wait and see if these changes make a meaningful difference. Source: Google