Google’s Foldables and Tablets Get a New Play Store

Google is going all in on its new foldables and tablets, redesigning the Play Store to help showcase apps designed to work with larger devices....
Google’s Foldables and Tablets Get a New Play Store
Written by WebProNews

Google is going all in on its new foldables and tablets, redesigning the Play Store to help showcase apps designed to work with larger devices.

The Google Pixel Fold was released to fairly good reviews, with many praising Google’s design and engineering. One weak point, however, was the lack of apps that took advantage of the new form factor.

The company seems intent on addressing the issue, redesigning the Play Store to place large apps front and center. The company says the Play Store has been improved in four ways:

  1. Refreshed app listing pages for high-quality appsYour store listing page is the best way to demonstrate the functionality and value of your app, so we’ve revamped the experience to put your content front and center. Games with high-quality videos will show a video banner at the top of their app listing page, allowing users to get a sense of gameplay in an immersive way. We’ve also reorganized apps and games details pages in a multi-column layout, bringing more of your content higher up the page.
  2. Ranking and quality improvementsTo promote high-quality apps that shine on large screens, we’ve made several ranking changes to boost quality across Play. Apps and games that adhere to our large screen app quality guidelines will now be ranked higher in search and Apps and Games Home. This helps users find apps that resize well, aren’t letterboxed, and support both portrait and landscape orientations. Editors’ Choice and other curated collections and articles will also consider these criteria going forward, creating new featuring opportunities for optimized apps.
  3. Streamlined store navigationFor more seamless browsing, we’ve simplified our store navigation and moved to a left-side navigation rail on larger screens. This puts menu items closer to users’ thumbs and makes them more accessible, especially when holding a device in landscape mode.
  4. Split-screen searchWe’re launching a split-screen search experience on large screens, displaying search results and app details pages side by side. This prevents users from switching back and forth when exploring new apps and streamlines the discovery process.

The new features should go a long way toward addressing the criticism some users had regarding the Pixel Fold.

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