Every app you pay for and every dollar you spend on the Play Store feeds the Android ecosystem. Google wants to keep things this way, so it throws in Play Points for good measure — a loyalty program where you’re rewarded for Play Store purchases. You can later redeem accumulated points for Play Store credit, but Google seems to be devising ingenious new ways to keep you hooked to Android’s primary app store.
A rewards program is usually designed to promote spending, but being limited to what’s available on the Play Store may seem a rather drab prospect. Google thought about this and last year, we learned of plans to allow Points redemption against hardware purchases from the Google Store. 9to5Google reports the company recently shared new ways to redeem your loyalty points for tangible products and services in a now-deleted tweet.
The new redemption options advertised in the tweet included discounts through “partner offers” from DoorDash, Instacart, and Povo. For example, You could shave $5 off your next Instacart grocery order totaling $35 or more, while DoorDash offered a $10 discount. Alternatively, you could offload 2,500 Play Points worth $25 in Play Credit for a cool branded t-shirt from the Google Merchandise Store.
Google deleted this tweet rather quickly, and we didn’t see these offers usually found under Play Store –> User account –> Play Points –> Use tab. Moreover, the promoted offers were valid until June 30. These circumstances lead us to conclude someone at Google probably jumped the gun unveiling these Play Points goodies, because a June 30 expiry date would make more sense in the wake of Google I/O, which will go down in May.
If you have a few thousand Play Points accrued this year already, we would suggest holding on to them for just a little longer, because these offers could reappear after the upcoming Google event. Otherwise, you could try your luck for some exclusive merch by being a Pixel Superfan, or buying it outright from the Google Merchandise Store.
