It’s been several years since we’ve seen a new look for the Google Play Store on desktop. While we most likely look for apps and games using our phones and tablets, we sometimes brush past the desktop version. If you’ve been waiting for the Play Store site to get a new look, then you’d be happy to know that Google just revamped it.
For the past couple of years, the Google Play Store site has had a certain aesthetic. Everything was flat with straight lines and sharp corners everywhere. It was good for the time, but Google’s overall design mentality has changed drastically over the last few years. This is especially true with Material You introduced last year.
If you don’t see it just yet, it could be that Google is testing this revamp on a limited number of users for the time being. The overall design of the Play Store was uprooted and changed. You no longer navigate through categories using the left side panel. Instead, the tabs are now located at the top. When you enter the page, you’ll see Games, Apps, Movies & TV, Books, and Kids. Immediately under that, you’ll be able to select which type of device you want to get apps for. There’s a button for phones, tablets, TVs, and Chromebooks.
The apps are still organized in a grid, but the tiles are all either rounded squares or rounded rectangles. For the games category, you’ll see several featured games represented as large rounded rectangles. Those featured apps are on carousels that you can scroll through. Scrolling down, you’ll see the other apps represented as rounded squares.
The apps section has a similar mixture of regular and featured apps that you can navigate. You’ll see them all organized in different categories like streaming or productivity.
As for Books and Movies & TV, all of the items are arranged in a tighter grid and they’re less rounded. They more represent actual book covers and movie cases, so they exactly can’t be squares.
Overall, the revamped Play Store site looks a lot closer to Google’s current design language. It’s more reminiscent of Material You with everything large and bubbly. The items take up more space and they sit on a larger grid, but, in all honesty, it all looks better. If you don’t see the change just yet, you might want to wait just a bit.
