Google Play Movies may be gearing up to provide hundreds of movies to viewers for free — assuming they can put up with a few advertisements. The news comes courtesy of an app teardown done by the folks at XDA Developers, and with so many of us both stuck at home and trying to save money during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it's very good news, assuming it pans out.

A handful of strings (read: human-readable English) found in the app make it pretty clear that Google is working on providing content "free with ads." Another string includes information that makes it clear this won't just be one or two movies, either, but "hundreds of movies," with "just a few ads."

From another perspective, this development actually makes a lot of sense. YouTube and Play Moves are pretty deeply integrated with each other already, and YouTube regularly offers up ad-supported flicks for free. The only thing that isn't clear is if the films Play Movies plans to offer will differ from the extensive list of mostly B- and C-list free flicks YouTube usually offers.

As per yooj, teardowns can be a finicky source of information. While they do frequently pan out, they're usually an indicator that something is simply being worked on or considered. It isn't proof positive in itself that we'll see a given feature land, and there's no telling when it might manifest if it does.

Source: XDA Developers