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Map of global availability of Google Play


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 monthly phone bill rather than on credit cards. Users can request refunds within 48 hours after a purchase.

Games

At the Google I/O 2013 Developer Conference, Google announced the introduction of Google Play Games. Google Play Games is an online gaming service for Android that features real-time multiplayer gaming capabilities, cloud saves, social and public leaderboards, and achievements. Its standalone mobile app was launched on July 24, 2013.

Music

Google Play Music is a music and podcast streaming service and online music locker. It features over 40 million songs, and gives users free cloud storage of up to 50,000 songs.

As of May 2017update, Google Play Music was available in 64 countries.

In June 2018, Google announced plans to shut down Play Music by 2020 and offered users to migrate to YouTube Music, migration to Google Podcasts was announced in May 2020. In October 2020, the music store for Google Play Music was shutdown. Google Play Music is to be shut down by December 2020 and will be replaced by YouTube Music and Google Podcasts.

Books

Google Play Books is an ebook digital distribution service. Google Play offers over five million ebooks available for purchase, and users can also upload up to 1,000 of their own ebooks in the form of PDF or EPUB file formats. As of January 2017update, Google Play Books is available in 75 countries.

Movies and TV shows

Google Play Movies & TV was a video on demand service offering movies and television shows available for purchase or rental, depending on availability.

As of January 2017update, movies are available in over 110 countries, while TV shows are available only in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom.

In October 2020, Google Play Movies & TV was renamed Google TV.

News publications and magazines

Google Play Newsstand is a news aggregator and digital newsstand service offering subscriptions to digital magazines and topical news feeds. Google released Newsstand in November 2013, combining the features of Google Play Magazines and Google Currents into a single product.

As of January 2017update, the basic Newsstand service, is available worldwide. As of 2017, paid Newsstand content was available in more than 35 countries.citation needed

On May 15, 2018, the mobile app merged with Google News & Weather to form Google News. The Newsstand section continued to appear on the Google Play website until November 5, 2018, but now is only available through the Google News app.

Devices

Until March 2015, Google Play had a "Devices" section for users to purchase Google Nexus devices, Chromebooks, Chromecasts, other Google-branded hardware, and accessories. A separate online hardware retailer called the Google Store was introduced on March 11, 2015, replacing the Devices section of Google Play.

Play Pass

On September 23, 2019, Google launched its Google Play Pass games and apps subscription service in the US. As of September 2019, subscribers could access the games and apps without ads and in-app purchases. The program is invitation-only for app developers, who then can integrate the service into their existing apps.citation needed

Device updates

Google introduced Project Mainline in Android 10, allowing core OS components to be updated via the Google Play Store, without requiring a complete system update.

Android 10 supports updates for core OS components including:

  • Security: Media Codecs, Media Framework Components, DNS Resolver, Conscrypt
  • Privacy: Documents UI, Permission Controller, ExtServices
  • Consistency: Time zone data, ANGLE (developers opt-in), Module Metadata, Networking components, Captive Portal Login, Network Permission Configuration

On December 4, 2019, Qualcomm announced their Snapdragon 865 supports GPU drivers updated via the Google Play Store. This feature was initially introduced with Android Oreo but vendors had not added support yet.

Teacher Approved

In 2020 Google launched a new children-focused 'Teacher Approved' section for the Google Play Store. Which includes apps that meet higher standards that are approved by teachers.

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