What you need to know
- The latest Play Store version sheds more light on an upcoming complimentary "Cubes" app for better content discovery.
- The app will have a main feed for content and customization for users looking to fine tune which apps should be displayed in their respective categories.
- Another discovery seems to have unearthed Google's plans to let users purchase items from the Play Store through the Cubes app.
The latest version of the Play Store seemingly contains clues as to a new feature Google is creating for the sake of content discovery.
Much of the labor was conducted and posted on Telegram by Google News, which showed evidence of a new feature dubbed "Cubes." According to what was found, Cubes will allegedly collect content from various app groups and display it in a singular feed and in the category's respective list.
From the settings, users may find a list of supported app categories like Watch, Social, Shopping, Listen, and more. This screen lets users decide what apps are to be shown in each category while also shifting its positioning. Moving them around affects the Cube app's "All apps" carousel housed directly above the main feed where content across all categories is displayed.
The UI is finally coming together after Google News first discovered evidence of the app early on in February — which was pretty barebones. Aside from that, it's currently unknown what the feed will look like, though it does appear that Google will give a pre-made selection of "apps to see content from" when diving into individual categories.
The Telegram discovery ends with an early glimpse at the Cube app's own widget, as well. Tapping a category's icon will (ideally) send users directly there.
AssembleDebug on X is giving us a new perspective on this new Cubes hub to complement the Play Store (via Android Police). Their discovery shows that Google plans for users to have the ability to make purchases through the Cubes hub. The app deep-diver adds that the feature should have a "cart system" as well. Things can always change, but for right now, the code's breadcrumbs are all we have.
Interestingly, the Cube hub showing signs of a "Watch" category could work well with Google's new "Play Report." The company introduced the new short-form video content to the Play Store in the U.S. in September as a way to help people discover apps and games while also gaining insight from creators that use them.
Viewing these videos through the Play Store arrived as an early pilot program, with content arriving on an episodic schedule. Elsewhere, earlier this month, the Play Store brought in an easier way for users to uninstall apps on their other devices that share the same Google account.
