Google Play Store Gets Instant App Listings With Try It Now Button, New Home for Games

Android Instant Apps are finally making their way to users on the Google Play store listings through a Try It Now button. The company confirmed the integration on Thursday and also announced several updates to the Google Play store.

For the uninitiated, Android Instant Apps lets users access apps from search, social media, messaging, and other deep links without the need to stop and first install the app. You can now spot them on Google Play as well, and the company has provided a list of featured Instant Apps. The list includes BuzzFeed, NYTimes (Crossword), Hollar, Red Bull, Skyscanner, Onefootball Live Soccer Scores - these can now be tried out by users before actually downloading them. Notably, while the list is visible in India, no Try It Now button is showing up for us at the time of writing.

Instant Apps were first introduced at I/O 2016 where Google had explained that the feature requires partner apps to be built with modules, which will mean that user will access only the necessary modules when tapping on an app's feature without downloading the entire app. With the current integration, users will be able to run Android apps instantly without requiring installation. Back in August, the company claimed they were now accessible on 500 million devices globally.

Apart from making Instant Apps live on Play store, Google also made a bunch of important announcements related to Play Store. Google has announced a revamped Editors' Choice tab in Play store which is now live in 17 countries. Some of the upcoming changes include improved home section for games which will soon feature trailers and screenshots of gameplay and two new browse destinations are also coming soon namely 'New' (for upcoming and trending games) and 'Premium' (for paid games). Additionally, Google will be now showing reminders to try games users have recently installed and will also expand successful 'live operations' banners on the Play Store. This will mean that Google will soon notify users about major in-game events in popular games users already got on their devices.

The company has also introduced the Google Play Security Reward Program to incentivise security research for popular Android apps including Google's own apps. The program will allow Google to find vulnerabilities and notify developers via security recommendations on how to fix them.