Google Play Store

Google Play Store is Google's official market where we can download applications, books or movies and manage other aspects of our smartphone or tablet.

The store for Android apps and other digital content

If you're an Android user, you don't need much introduction to know what the Google Play Store is. Google's digital content distribution platform, formerly known as Android Market, is the leading Android app store and the second largest in the world by revenue, behind the iTunes App Store. More than 50 billion downloads were made in 2013 and more than 2.7 million apps were published in 2017. 2019 continues this development.

The online store where you can buy and download the digital products distributed by Google.

This store is mainly dedicated to the distribution of apps. Any Android device can access it as long as it has a Google user account to browse the almost three million apps in the catalogue.

There are all kinds of applications sorted by category (games, dating, shopping, communication, sports, health…), both paid and free. As users, we can search manually or get recommendations on new releases, browse the lists created by the editors, see the most popular products, or just see recommendations based on our download history. The latter mainly because it allows us to know which apps we already have installed (even if we deleted them from our Android device) through the Google store and through the email we provided when registering.

Although mainly the software download is available, we can also find other articles:

• play movies
• music.
• play books.
• Play Newsstand (print media and press).
• Devices (Chromecast, Nest series home automation products, Pixel C tablets and other accessories can be purchased here).

Other services offered by the official Android store

We find features such as Play Games, the service developed for Android but also for iOS devices such as iPhone and iPad. This is a gaming-focused feature that adds real-time multiplayer options, as well as achievements, leaderboards, and online storage for games that are compatible with this service and use it to connect their users.

In addition, there are the following functions that the user can use:

• Set up your own account.
• Buy gift cards and redeem their codes.
• wish list.
• Activity in store.
• Guide for Parents.

Also linked to the Play Store is Google Play Services, the system application through which Android automatically updates the terminal's applications to the latest version available.

Alternate app stores

But of course, not everything starts and ends in the Google Marketplace. In fact, some consider Google's terms of service to be overly strict, as they do not allow the release of applications that could potentially infringe copyright or the terms of service of the various services offered by Google.

For this reason, other stores like Aptoide, Mobogenie or Blackmart have emerged in parallel and have grown considerably, as well as a large number of websites from which you can download the apps' APK files. But why download an APK? Very simple, because you might want to run it on a big screen, for example, on an Android emulator for PC or Mac.

Here we offer you the possibility to download the Play Store, because although many mobile devices already have it pre-installed or make it available for download with the browser service kit, your end device may not be able to do this (this sometimes happens with devices , which come out with no bloatware or preinstalled software of any kind).

Innovations in the latest version

• Improvements to the Android Official Store app.

Requirements and further information:

• Minimum operating system requirements: Android 10.0.
• Installing the app using the APK file requires enabling the "Unknown Sources" option in Settings > Applications.