Google revamps its Play Store with AI features and more (techcrunch.com)

Google is rolling out a major Play Store redesign that layers personalization, content aggregation and generative-AI features across apps, media and games. New discovery tools include Guided Search (find apps by goal instead of name), curated “spaces” in the Apps tab that surface seasonal or regional content from multiple apps, and a You tab that centralizes subscriptions, Play Points, recommendations, reading/listening resume states and customizable gamer profiles (including Gen AI avatars). The changes aim to make Play a one-stop content hub — building on Collections and watch/streaming integrations — to increase engagement and surface content users might otherwise miss. The update’s most notable technical addition is AI-powered gaming support: Play Games Sidekick, an in-game overlay powered by Gemini Live’s audio-to-audio model, can interpret gaming context and provide real-time tips, walkthroughs and curated resources without leaving the game. Sidekick initially supports EA and Netmarble titles (e.g., Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, FC Mobile) and pairs with enhanced Game Detail Pages, Play Games Leagues (starting with Subway Surfers) and a Games tab that consolidates stats, rewards and communities. Google also exited the Play Games on PC beta, expanding access to 200k+ titles. For developers and the AI/ML community, this signals deeper multimodal model integration into product discovery and real-time user assistance, opening new UX patterns and integration points — and raising the stakes for developer tooling, moderation and privacy considerations.