Google’s Play Store wants to pivot from grab-and-go to an active destination

Enlarge / I like the idea of clicking "Realistic," "MMORPG," and "Word" boxes, just to see what comes back. (credit: Google)

Google Play is a lot of things—perhaps too many things for those who just want to install some apps. If that's how you feel, you might find "Google Play's next chapter" a bit bewildering, as Google hopes to make it "more than a store." Or you might start thinking about how to turn Play Points into a future Pixel phone.

In a blog post about "How we're evolving Google Play," VP and General Manager of Google Play Sam Bright outlines the big changes to Google Play:

• AI-generated app reviews and summaries, along with app comparisons
• "Curated spaces" for interests, showing content from apps related to one thing (like cricket, and Japanese comics)
• Game recommendations based on genres and features you select.
• Google Play Games on PC can pick up where you left off in games played on mobile and can soon play multiple titles at the same time on desktop.
• Play Points enthusiasts who are in the Diamond, Platinum, or Gold levels can win Pixel devices, Razer gaming products, and other gear, along with other game and access perks.

Those are the upgrades to existing Play features. The big new thing is Collections, which, like the "curated spaces," takes content from apps you already have installed and organizes them around broad categories. I spotted "Watch," "Listen," "Read," "Games," "Social," "Shop," and "Food" in Google's animated example. You can toggle individual apps feeding into the Collections in the settings.