latest
Why is Google allowed to remove purchases from our Play Store accounts without telling us?
Users are starting to get fed up with games disappearing from their accounts without any explanation
Most of the time, the Google Play Store is awesome. It's notoriously easy to navigate, has a decently attractive user interface, and features all the applications you could expect to find in an app marketplace. Whether your jam is games to pass the time or more serious applications, the Play Store is your entrance into the world of entertainment on your Android device. With a little over three and a half million apps available to download, there's something for everyone on the Google Play Store.
I tested the Google Play Games for PC beta — these are the best titles right now
Mobile gaming comes to PC thanks to Google. Let's take a look
Many of the top Android games on the Play Store today are available on desktop computers and laptops via ChromeOS, but the Google Play Games for PC beta allows Windows users to join in on the fun. All games approved for this service are optimized for keyboard and mouse, so you don't have to work around awkward controls.
New, oddly familiar Google Play Games icon makes its debut on Android
Google Play Games for PC beta testers should know how it looks
There are a whole bunch of visual allegories you could tie to the various logos of the various properties housed under the Google Play umbrella. At one point, it had all you wanted to see, listen, read, and game from the Play Store proper to Play Movies and Play Music. Those last two were turned into Google TV and YouTube Music, respectively, leaving us with two other auxiliaries: Play Books and Play Games. And wouldn't you believe it — the latter's getting a new look.
Here's how to get Google Play Games for PC working on your underpowered machine
But you probably shouldn't
With Windows officially supporting Android apps, Google has brought the Play Store to PCs if only for just its games. The Google Play Games on PC beta has been out for a few months, but some eager would-be users have been locked out of using it thanks to the minimum spec requirements. If your PC doesn't meet them, Google is giving you a way to slide through them, but you might have a pretty rough experience with the beta itself.
One of Windows 11’s most eagerly anticipated features was the ability to run Android apps and games. Microsoft’s implementation relies on the Amazon Appstore, and the stable version hasn’t rolled out in many regions yet. Meanwhile, Google has introduced its own approach to app virtualization on Windows, dubbed Play Games for PC. The service is currently in beta but is still making rapid strides, as Google has just expanded it to two new markets.
Google gives back full control over the accounts you use to play games
More control comes to Google Play Games accounts
It’s always risky to hand over your phone to a kid, or even your friends. Even if it’s just to play a game — assuming you trust them not to go snooping around — they’re still probably messing up your progress if you’re not careful. Google has become aware of this particular plight and added granular controls for picking which Play Games account signs in to each game.
Google Play Games for PC starts limited beta for Android games on Windows, sharing system requirements
You'll need a relatively powerful computer for now. And for once, the US isn't getting a Google thing first
Last year, Google told us at The Game Awards that it planned to bring Android games to Windows PCs under the Google Play Games banner — basically launching an Android app store for Windows, limited to games. True to its prior promises, Google has more to share with us now that it's 2022. Starting today, interested parties can sign up for a limited beta of the new Google Play Games for PC, but only if you're in Hong Kong, South Korea, or Taiwan.
Google snuck a huge announcement into the Game Awards today. We're still working out the full ramifications of all this, but the company says it plans to bring Google Play Games to Windows in 2022, and it has explicitly confirmed to Android Police that this will include game distribution. In short: Google is launching an app store (for games) on Windows next year.
Google Play Users' Choice voting is officially underway
Make your pick for the best apps and games of the year
Believe it or not, 2021 has almost reached its end. While there's plenty to feel emotional about, it's also a chance to celebrate everything the year has offered. With the Google Play Users' Choice Awards, it's your turn to pick the best Android apps and games released over the last twelve months.
Your chance to vote for the best of Google Play in 2020 starts now
And you don't even need to register
Voting is all the rage this year, and now Google is giving users a chance to make their voices heard when it comes to Google Play's Best of 2020 awards. It's been 363 days since voting began on last year's participants, and today Google is opening up this year's best-of list so users can vote for their favorites and crown the winners.
Google Play Games has a new filter tool we wish the Play Store had
Filter. By. Ads... ADS, folks, ADS.
The Google Play Games app is debuting a new all-in-one filtered section to let users sort out what they want to play based on purchasing factors, critical ratings, genres, and even play-based factors such as accessibility and device orientation. Now, if only we got this level of granularity on the Play Store proper...
Google Play Games' new friend list lets you play with others and compare achievements
Helping you show off your gaming chops
Play Games' turn-based multiplayer capabilities were only shut down a few days ago, but Google is adding a set of new social features to the app instead. As we already suspected due to some strings found in Play Games' source code, a server-side update has brought a new social section with a friends list to the app, making it easier to compare your achievements and which games you play.
You'd be forgiven if you're among the many that forgot the Google Play Games app even exists, but here's a reminder. Better, details surrounding a new "Play Together" social feature have been spotted in a recent teardown, and they could add enough new functionality to make the app worth remembering, too.
Back in the not-quite-dark-ages of Android, new services and APIs were launching seemingly every other week as Google and Apple engaged in an aggressive land grab to acquire users and tempt developers. Gaming became a popular battleground, and Google was investing in new features for Play Games like an API that gave developers the infrastructure to run real-time and turn-based multiplayer games for free. However, like many other older Play Games APIs, Google will be shutting this one down in about six months and it may render some older games unplayable.
The Play Games app is riding high with a series of recent changes and still a few more things to come. The latest update doesn't bring any revolutionary changes, but it does change the icons adorning the built-in games so they can all share a uniform style. Buried within the APK are also signs that a new easter egg is in the works that will probably launch another new mini-game.
Google Family Link, a way for parents to create supervised/limited accounts for their children, has been slowly rolling out to more regions over the past year. It's largely feature-complete at this point, but there's still one pressing issue - it doesn't work with Google Play Games at all. Child accounts are unable to log into Play Games, which prevents many titles from saving progress - and some from working at all.
Personal privacy is and probably always will be a difficult topic now that a digital lifestyle has become indelibly linked to our culture. It's not enough to stop using a service, we should be able to have data deleted from the servers just in case a hacker manages to gain access. Google Play Games has long offered the ability to erase entire profiles, which includes the Gamer ID, XP, scores, and any other data saved to its servers. Now there's text suggesting we'll get the ability to be picky and wipe individual games from the record while leaving everything else intact.
It's coming up on two years now since Google first introduced the idea of Android Instant Apps. Instead of users having to download and install a full app prior to using it, Instant Apps allowed developers to give users a way to jump right into app screens and start interacting with them, as easily as if they'd clicked a link to a webpage. Not only did that let you get things done faster, but also served as some smart advertising for devs; if a user liked what they saw with Instant Apps, they might consider downloading and installing the full thing. Now it's time for the next evolution of this feature, with the debut of Google Play Instant for games.
When an update to Play Games v5.3 came out with a redesigned look back in November, it was missing one big element: Discovery. Users could check out their achievements, browse games they own, and even play some brand new mini-games, but there was barely anything in the app to help you find new games. With the release of v5.5, there's a brand new "Arcade" tab dedicated to just that.
Updates to the Play Games app aren't as free flowing as they are for many of Google's other apps, but they often do bring pretty big changes or additions. The latest version bump gives Play Games a huge visual makeover that looks cleaner and puts installed games front and center. There are also three included mini-games to play if you get bored and don't have something else installed yet.