In the US, the server-side rollout of Google Play’s new “Collections” widget for content recommendations is beginning to take place more widely after last week’s announcement.
To showcase the various layout options, the Play Store now features two widgets in the picker. Depending on how you size it, they are essentially the identical widget. A bar represents the smallest choice, and your full display represents the largest. Access to Watch, Game, Read, Listen, Food, Shop, and Social is available through a pseudo-navigation rail in the latter setup.
Upon tapping, an exclusive fullscreen interface including numerous card carousels appears. There is an app tray at the bottom of every feed.
The “App library,” which essentially acts as a different app launcher, is noteworthy. The categories are listed below, with folders for Recently added and Top used.
The unified stream of recommended content is accessed through the widget. If you use YouTube Music, for instance, the options Continue listening, Your shows, Mixed for you, and “Similar to [artist]” can all be found under Listen.
Google TV viewers can choose from a variety of genres under Watch, while YouTube provides Trailers and “From your subscriptions.” Read offers title recommendations based on your previous readings as well as “Continue reading” options from Play Books.
Food displays “Cooking & recipe videos” from YouTube in addition to recommendations from Google Maps for nearby locations. If you utilize Reddit, Social will display a carousel called “From your feed.”
In the interim, the following list of apps has been integrated with the Engage SDK and supports Collections as of right now. To disable certain apps or turn off entire feeds, open the complete Collections UI, tap your avatar in the top-right corner, and then select Collections settings.