Google updates Play Store with new layout for large screens

The updated Play Store offers split screen search experience and rank games and apps optimized for large screen devices higher on the Play store.

Google Play Store | Google Play Store on tablets | Google Play Store layout

Apps and games optimised for large devices will be ranked higher, (Image Source: Google)

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At Google I/O 2022, the tech giant announced a plethora of changes to how the Play Store will look on large-screen devices like tablets, foldable phones and Chromebooks Now, the tech giant has rolled out a revamped version of the app with four major changes that will enhance user experience and help them find high-quality apps.

Google has reorganised the apps and games details page, with large screens now supporting a multi-column layout. As for games, titles with high-quality videos will now show a video banner at the top of the app listing page, making it easy for users to check what the gameplay looks like.

Apps and games that meet Google’s standard for large-screen devices will be ranked higher in the store. The change will also affect Editor’s Choice and other curated collections and articles and help users find apps that resize well and are not letterboxed.

Play Store will offer a split-screen search experience on tablets, foldable and Chromebooks. (Image Source: Google)

The tech giant is also working on a new feature that will offer a preview of how the app will look on your device and help them decide if they want to install it. Google says the feature will start rolling out in late August and show a warning on the top of the app details page.

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Apps optimised for large-screen devices will now take a preference over apps that do not scale or look well. As part of the UI overhaul, the bottom tab now appears on the left of the device when held in landscape mode. The Top Charts and Categories section is now available in Apps and Games home, whereas Kids is now a primary tab on large-screen devices. Another major change is that searching an app on the Play Store will now offer a split-screen experience, with one half showing search results and the other half providing app details.

All the aforementioned changes will be rolling out to large-screen devices like foldables, tablets and Chromebooks in the coming weeks, so you might have to wait a while before the new interface is available on your device.