Google’s plan to promote Android apps outside of the Play Store is starting to take shape, as a new feature called “Collections” reveals a way for users to keep up with their apps from their Android’s home screen. At this year’s Google I/O developer conference, the company presented developers with tools to re-engage users with the apps they already have installed on their devices. However, the company at the time didn’t detail what this surface would look like, focusing solely on the software development kit (SDK) that developers could access to integrate with the new offering.
Google also shared that it already has more than 35 developer partners on board to test the new feature, including Spotify, Pinterest, Tumblr, TikTok and Shopify.
In a session at the conference, developers were presented with information about a new invitation-only Engage SDK, designed largely to bring users back to their apps by displaying content, promotions and offers. Surface, Google said, would “automatically organize the best and most frequent content from already installed apps” with a focus on allowing seamless travel between apps for almost all app categories.
With a tap, users will be able to launch immersive, full-screen experiences that highlight and organize the most important content in their installed applications.
Now we are starting to get an idea of what this surface will look like. thanks to an APK teardown of the Google Play Store software, made by the Android Authority blog. His reverse engineering experiments reveal a still-in-development feature known as “Collections.” Previously known under the codename “Cubes”, the feature introduces a Play-Store widget for the Android home screen that organizes app updates into categories such as Watch, Listen, Read, Games, Social and Buy.
When users select a given category, they will be shown all relevant content from their apps in this space, assuming the apps have been integrated with the SDK.
As Google described during the I/O session, the new device surface would organize what’s most relevant to users, inviting them back to their apps. The company also offered some examples, showing how retail apps could invite people to continue their shopping trip by highlighting what they’d saved in their cart, while apps like Uber Eats could invite users to place their favorite food order. Reddit could encourage people to read and upvote interesting posts, while Spotify could feature favorite playlists.
Google said app developers could also use the feature to show “personalized recommendations and promotions” that would help uncover other content and deals they might have missed.
The APK teardown revealed that the feature will be launched in the US first, before rolling out to new markets and will also be easily accessible via a shortcut from the Play Store app itself. Namely, when you long-press on the Play Store app, there will be a link to access Collections from the pop-up menu that appears.
Google has not yet responded to a request for comment on the Collections feature, but previously announced that the consumer experience would launch later this year. Notably, Google recently announced a new hardware and Android event, “Made by Google”, which will take place in August. We've heard that Google hopes to announce this feature more officially at that time.
