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Google Play , formerly Android Market , is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating system, allowing users to browse and download applications developed with the Android software development kit (SDK) and published through Google. Google Play also serves as a digital media store, offering music, books, movies, and television programs. It previously offered Google hardware devices for purchase until the introduction of a separate online hardware retailer, Google Store, on March 11, 2015, and it also offered news publications and magazines before the revamp of Google News on May 15, 2018, and it also offered music until October 2020 when the service was replaced with YouTube Music. Applications are available through Google Play either free of charge or at a cost. They can be downloaded directly on an Android device through the proprietary Play Store mobile app or by deployi...

Android applications By 2017, Google Play featured more than 3.5 million Android applications. After Google purged a lot of apps from the Google Play store, the number of apps has risen back to 2.96 million Android applications. As of 2017, developers in more than 150 locations could distribute apps on Google Play, though not every location supports merchant registration. Developers receive 70% of the application price, while the remaining 30% goes to the distribution partner and operating fees. citation needed Developers can set up sales, with the original price struck out and a banner underneath informing users when the sale ends. Google Play allows developers to release early versions of apps to a select group of users, as alpha or beta tests. Users can pre-order select apps (as well as movies, music, books, and games) to have the items delivered as soon as they are available. Some network carriers offer billing for Google Play purchases, allowing users to opt for charges in the mo...

Google Play (previously styled Google play ) originated from three distinct products: Android Market, Google Music and Google eBookstore. Android Market was announced by Google on August 28, 2008, and was made available to users on October 22. In December 2010, content filtering was added to Android Market, each app's details page started showing a promotional graphic at the top, and the maximum size of an app was raised from 25 megabytes to 50 megabytes. The Google eBookstore was launched on December 6, 2010, debuting with three million ebooks, making it "the largest ebooks collection in the world". In November 2011, Google announced Google Music, a section of the Play Store offering music purchases. In March 2012, Google increased the maximum allowed size of an app by allowing developers to attach two expansion files to an app's basic download; each expansion file with a maximum size of 2 gigabytes, giving app developers a total of 4 gigabytes. Also in March 2012, A...

Apart from searching for content by name, apps can also be searched through keywords provided by the developer. When searching for apps, users can press on suggested search filters, helping them to find apps matching the determined filters. For the discoverability of apps, Play Store consists of lists featuring top apps in each category, including "Top Free", a list of the most popular free apps of all time; "Top Paid", a list of the most popular paid apps of all time; "Top Grossing", a list of apps generating the highest amounts of revenue; "Trending Apps", a list of apps with recent installation growth; "Top New Free", a list of the most popular new free apps; "Top New Paid", a list of the most popular new paid apps; "Featured", a list of new apps selected by the Google Play team; "Staff Picks", a frequently-updated list of apps selected by the Google Play team; "Editors' Choice", a list of ...

Launched in 2017, Google Play Instant , also named Google Instant Apps , allows to use an app or game without installing it first.

Google states in its Developer Policy Center that "Google Play supports a variety of monetization strategies to benefit developers and users, including paid distribution, in-app products, subscriptions, and ad-based models", and requires developers to comply with the policies in order to "ensure the best user experience". It requires that developers charging for apps and downloads through Google Play must use Google Play's payment system. In-app purchases unlocking additional app functionality must also use the Google Play payment system, except in cases where the purchase "is solely for physical products" or "is for digital content that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g. songs that can be played on other music players)." Support for paid applications was introduced on February 13, 2009 for developers in the United States and the United Kingdom, with support expanded to an additional 29 countries on September 30, 2010. The in-app...

Play Store Developer(s) Google Initial release October 22, 2008 ; 12 years ago  ( 2008-10-22 ) Stable release(s) ± Android 19.0.12 / February 28, 2020 ; 9 months ago  ( 2020-02-28 ) Android TV 18.7.18 / February 21, 2020 ; 9 months ago  ( 2020-02-21 ) Wear OS 17.3.27 / November 14, 2019 ; 12 months ago  ( 2019-11-14 ) Operating system Android Type Digital distribution, App store Website play .google .com   Play Store is Google's official pre-installed app store on Android-certified devices. It provides access to content on the Google Play Store, including apps, books, magazines, music, movies, and television programs. Devices do not ship with the Play Store in China, with manufacturers offering their own alternative. Play Store filters the list of apps to those compatible with the user's device. Developers can target specific hardware components (such as compass), software components (such as widget), and Android versions (such as 7.0 Nougat). Carriers can also ban certain ap...

In 2012, Google began decoupling certain aspects of its Android operating system (particularly its core applications) so they could be updated through the Google Play store independently of the OS. One of those components, Google Play Services, is a closed-source system-level process providing APIs for Google services, installed automatically on nearly all devices running Android 2.2 "Froyo" and higher. With these changes, Google can add new system functionality through Play Services and update apps without having to distribute an upgrade to the operating system itself. As a result, Android 4.2 and 4.3 "Jelly Bean" contained relatively fewer user-facing changes, focusing more on minor changes and platform improvements.

Year Month Applications available Downloads to date 2009 March 2,300 December 16,000 2010 March 30,000 April 38,000 July 70,000 September 80,000 October 100,000 2011 April 3 billion May 200,000 4,5 billion July 250,000 6 billion October 500,000 December 10 billion 2012 April 15 billion June 600,000 20 billion September 675,000 25 billion October 700,000 2013 May 48 billion July 1 million 50 billion 2016 82 billion 2017 February 2.7 million

In April 2016, Google announced the Google Play Awards, described as "a way to recognize our incredible developer community and highlight some of the best apps and games". The awards showcase five nominees across ten award categories, and the apps are featured in a dedicated section of Google Play. Google stated that "Nominees were selected by a panel of experts on the Google Play team based on criteria emphasizing app quality, innovation, and having a launch or major update in the last 12 months", with the winners announced in May. Google has also previously released yearly lists of apps it deemed the "best" on Google Play. On March 6, 2017, five years after Google Play's launch, Google released lists of the best-selling apps, games, movies, music, and books over the past five years. In June 2017, Google introduced "Android Excellence", a new editorial program to highlight the apps deemed the highest quality by the Google Play editors.

Google places some restrictions on the types of apps that can be published, in particular not allowing sexually explicit content, child endangerment, violence, bullying & harassment, hate speech, gambling, illegal activities, and requiring precautions for user-generated content. In March 2015, Google disclosed that over the past few months, it had been begun using a combination of automated tools and human reviewers to check apps for malware and terms of service violations before they are published in the Play Store. At the same time, it began rolling out a new age-based ratings system for apps and games, based on a given region's official ratings authority (for example, ESRB in the US). In October 2016, Google announced a new detection and filtering system designed to provide "additional enhancements to protect the integrity of the store". The new system is aimed to detect and filter cases where developers have been attempting to "manipulate the placement of the...

In February 2012, Google introduced a new automated antivirus system, called Google Bouncer, to scan both new and existing apps for malware (e. g. spyware or trojan horses). In 2017, the Bouncer feature and other safety measures within the Android platform were rebranded under the umbrella name Google Play Protect, a system that regularly scans apps for threats. Android apps can ask for or require certain permissions on the device, including access to body sensors, calendar, camera, contacts, location, microphone, phone, SMS, storage, WI-FI, and access to Google accounts. In July 2017, Google described a new security effort called "peer grouping", in which apps performing similar functionalities, such as calculator apps, are grouped together and attributes compared. If one app stands out, such as requesting more device permissions than others in the same group, Google's systems automatically flag the app and security engineers take a closer inspection. Peer grouping is ba...

Some developers publishing on Google Play have been sued for patent infringement by "patent trolls", people who own broad or vaguely worded patents that they use to target small developers. If the developer manages to successfully challenge the initial assertion, the "patent troll" changes the claim of the violation in order to accuse the developer of having violated a different assertion in the patent. This situation continues until the case goes into the legal system, which can have substantial economic costs, prompting some developers to settle. In February 2013, Austin Meyer, a flight simulator game developer, was sued for having used a copy-protection system in his app, a system that he said "Google gave us! And, of course, this is what Google provides to everyone else that is making a game for Android!" Meyer claimed that Google would not assist in the lawsuit, and he stated that he would not settle the case. His battle with the troll continued for s...

Users outside the countries/regions listed below only have access to free apps and games through Google Play. Country/region Paid apps and games Devices Magazines Books Movies & TV Music Customers can purchase Developers can sell Google Play Pass Movies TV shows Standard All access   Albania Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No No   Algeria Yes Yes No No No No No No No No   Angola Yes No No No No No Yes No No No   Antigua and Barbuda Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No No   Argentina Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes   Armenia Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No No   Aruba Yes No No No No No Yes No No No   Australia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes   Austria Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes   Azerbaijan Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No No   Bahamas Yes Yes No No No No No No No No   Bahrain Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No No   B...