The Google Play Points program was introduced a few years back as an incentive for users to — what else — buy more stuff on the Play Store. Participants earn at least 1 point for every $1 they spend on things like apps and IAPs. Collect enough, and you can redeem those points as credit towards new purchases. But so far, the redemption process has been kind of tedious, requiring buyers to go through a multiple-step process. This now appears to be getting streamlined with a new change that allows you to cash in points directly when making your purchase.
As spotted by 9to5Google, Google now lets you redeem your accumulated Play Points when making a purchase just like they're cash, effectively doing away with the need for converting points into a gift card in order to spend them. With the prior system you needed to have a minimum balance of points to be able to covert them.
As this goes live, you'll see a new section within the usual purchase screen that prompts you to “Use points” in addition to your normal payment methods. Tapping reveals a couple of options — you can spend points $1 at a time (or whatever your local currency is), at the cost of 100 points, or just use them all in one go.
If you're an existing Play Points user, you probably already know that you can earn points faster thanks to an elaborate four-tier reward system. Depending on how much you spend on the Play Store or the number of points you earn, you can advance ranks to Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. And the higher your level, the more points you earn — on Platinum, for example, you get 1.4 points for every $1 spent.
In case you can’t seem to find anything good enough to spend your accumulated points on, Google also offers an option to donate them to a worthy cause, although the feature is limited to the US and Korea for now.