Google’s recent Play Store changes are exactly what it doesn’t need

I’m just going to say it. I’ve never liked the Play Store. In my humble opinion, it has always been awful for discovering quality apps and games, and has only grown worse over the years. Instead of actually helping users find good apps and games that don’t break the bank, it feels more like Google is only interested in pushing everyone towards subscription apps and games filled with gambling. Of course, this setup lines Google’s pockets with a hefty share of profits, which means it is incentivized to push what makes it the most money instead of what users find useful.

A perfect example of this is with the recent changes coming to the store, from the new Collections widget to the AI review summaries; all I see are advertisements disguised as features, a horrible trend I’ve noticed across Google products over the last few years.

Nobody asked for yet another way to see the same old apps and games with a bunch of ads mixed in

The primary issue with the Google Play Store is that discovery is a joke. It is very challenging to find quality apps and games beyond the most popular ones. From a useless search feature that prefers to shove ads in your face before the actual result, to endless categorization that pulls very similar listings no matter what genres you choose, it’s no wonder Google says the bulk of its users don’t spend much time in the Play Store browsing for new apps.

So why would I or anyone else want a widget that still only highlights the stuff I’m already seeing in the Play Store’s many useless lists? I’m among those who barely use the store as it is, so unless something fundamentally changes how Google highlights apps and games, more of the same is nothing I’m interested in.

Source: Best Buy

Gross, ^ this is not what I use the Play Store for

But of course, app recommendations aren’t all the Collections widget will do, as it will also pull in videos from your YouTube recommendations, music based on your listening history, and TV shows to watch on your growing collection of streaming services, all based off your use of Google’s and its partners apps and services. I hate all of this. I hate it on my Shield TV, and I hate it in Collections. I don’t need bots to recommend what to watch; I have a brain and can actually make decisions on my own. On top of that, thanks to the partner deals Google’s built here, these recommendations start feeling like ads for all involved. After all, the metrics don’t lie; the more time one spends using an app, the more likely they are to spend money, which Google knows full well.

Related

Google Play’s new Collections widget wants you to spend, consume, repeat

It’s launching in the US today

The most egregious design of all of this is that you can receive what effectively amounts to ads for real-world products and sales disguised as recommendations. Sure, you might have the Best Buy app on your phone, but do you need it to appear in a convenient little Shop tab? It feels like another attempt from Google to deliver shopping results to users, just like those listings you likely already ignore within search. That’s all this is, just moved inside the Play Store and within this widget.

No matter how you slice it, Google’s new Collections are more of the same. I don’t go to the Play Store to find out what’s new on YouTube, the same as I don’t use the Play Store to find out what oddments Best Buy currently has on sale. As a matter of fact, I use the Play Store as little as possible because it’s already filled with endless lists of horrible recommendations I would never consider in a million years. And yet Google has all of my data, decades of it, and all it does with it is try to strong-arm me into spending my time and money on things I actively despise. I guess when you have a monopoly, you don’t have to actually serve your user’s interests and can instead serve up endless ads disguised as recommendations as the user experience continues to slide down the toilet.

When Google’s AI isn’t busy recommending you eat glue, it’s summarizing Play Store reviews

Much like Amazon, summarizing fake reviews isn’t very helpful

Perhaps summarizing user reviews would be helpful if those user reviews were trustworthy in the first place. After all these years, it is clear they are not, and despite Google separating reviews by region to cut down on fake reviews, they still happen all the time, which means Google’s summaries can’t be trusted without personally verifying the reviews being summarized, which means that AI summary is all but useless. It’s especially useless when those summaries don’t even reflect the app/game in question.

Despite the AI summaries not even working correctly, Google is still advertising the feature as helpful. Perhaps one day it will be, but Google would have to fully clean up the customer review system for that to work, and when I watch new game releases each week fill up with fake reviews, like how pre-load games allow reviews before a game is even playable, I don’t see my mistrust changing. So unless Google finally stops encouraging fake reviews with its pre-load feature, yeah, I won’t be reading any AI summaries anytime soon, which means this is another useless feature that only appears to benefit Google and its partners to sell more stuff under the haze of fancy-schmancy AI.

Subscriptions are so ingrained with apps we apparently need a tracker

Remind me again why so many apps need subscriptions in the first place

Source: Android Authority

Now that we have reached a point where a tracker is required to remind users of how many subscriptions they pay for, I think it is pretty clear we’ve reached the point of absurdity. Instead of tackling the real issue consumers face where every developer wants endless money for their app or service — perhaps by highlighting subscription apps less while pushing quality single payment apps more — Google has instead chosen to lean into how many subs people are racking up by listing them all in one place for easy tracking. Sure, this sounds somewhat handy, but ultimately the wrong fix for too many apps and games requiring a subscription. Once again, a convenient position for Google as it rakes in its cut.

Google’s greed is growing grating

I’m tired, boss

I don’t even know what to say at this point. None of this is surprising coming from Google in 2024, but it sure is as annoying as ever. I started covering Android over a decade ago with the goal of hunting down and sharing the best games on the platform, something I’m still doing to this very day. But what do I know? I’m just some jerk who wants quality games and apps that aren’t designed to empty my pockets at every possible opportunity. Clearly, Google knows what I truly want, and that’s Best Buy sales, useless review summaries, and a constant reminder of just how much money I’m wasting on apps that likely don’t deserve the attention to begin with.

At the end of the day, actual user aggregation — real people doing the hard work of digging up quality apps and games — can’t be beaten by lazy AI or halfhearted features that are designed to sell more products. Not only is Google’s agenda crystal clear that consumer needs come last, but the money-grubbing on full display for everyone to see is quite offputting. More and more of the products I once tolerated or even loved (I still weep for what was done to Android/Google TV) are slowly being ruined by ridiculous features designed to line the company’s pockets. It’s blatant and disgusting, and I truly wish Google was better than this. I know it can be, yet here we are.