TikTok’s extremely addictive short video format is the reason the platform quickly earned a spot among the top social media platforms in the world. And in an attempt to replicate that success, other platforms have either come out with their own clones, like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, or have otherwise added short videos in an attempt to get users to engage more. The latest platform to add short videos is actually one where you probably weren’t expecting to see them — the Google Play Store.
The Google Play Store is getting a video series that you can watch right through the app store, called “The Play Report.” These videos are meant to help viewers discover new apps, and the company is partnering with a number of content creators and experts (the occasional Google employee will also pop in) to make short videos highlighting certain apps. The videos themselves are surprisingly TikTok-like, with a vertical format and a duration of a few seconds, with the main difference being that there’s a handy “Install” button right below the video that you can quickly tap on if the video managed to convince you to give it a shot.
Upon closer inspection, the GIF Google used to showcase this feature has what looks like a “Shorts” button/link in the video controls, which probably means that this is just a YouTube Shorts integration. This makes sense, given how The Play Report videos will also be available on other social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. In fact, checking Google Play’s YouTube channel shows that there are already a few “episodes” of the Play Report uploaded as YouTube Shorts. Having them right in the app store, however, can aid with discovering new apps, and might entice people to actually download them. It’s not clear whether the company or the creators are choosing which apps to highlight in these videos.
Google Play short videos are not open to submissions by users, or by developers, as you might imagine. The store does allow developers to link to YouTube videos in app listings, however, and if this goes well, perhaps Google will think about maybe allowing for this kind of short videos to be uploaded to app listings as well.
These videos are now available on the Play Store for a select few users in the United States, and can be seen at the top of the Play Store’s home page. If you don’t see it yet, you can either check out the videos on other social media platforms or wait for the feature to be rolled out to more users.
Source: Google via TechCrunch
