Google user interface engineer Kirill Grouchnikov posted several pictures of the new app to show off what’s on tap. He also used the promotion to announce he’s moving to another team at Google after with years of work with the Play Store, going back to its days as Android Market.
The redesign isn’t a total overhaul, but it clearly puts an emphasis on easier content discovery by category. There are now two distinct categories: one for apps and games, another for entertainment. The latter includes Google Play’s movies, TV shows, music, and books.
There was no timeframe for when this would roll out. The only hint was an accompanying hashtag of #soon. The other hashtag was #uhhnggnhyeh, which is presumably some type of joyful exclamation.
Other screenshots give us a look at the splash screens and how the new layout will look in other elements of the Play Store.
There’s also a new Play Store APK available. While it doesn’t bring the new look, it does have a couple of functional changes: the ability to copy and paste from app descriptions and changelogs. This is mostly going to impact developers and hardcore Android geeks, but it’s sure nice to have. The new version of the Play Store might even set up all the underlying code necessary to enable the new look, which can be turned on with the flip of a server-side switch.
The story behind the story: The Google Play Store has evolved significantly over the years, mirroring the growth of Android. What once started as a loosely-regulated app storefront has turned into a major revenue stream for Google, which announced in February it had paid out $7 billion to developers in the past year. With that much at stake, expect more effort to go into making the Play Store an appealing place to shop for content.