Yes, Google Thinks That The Google Play Store Needs AI Too


We live in an AI-powered generation, and whether you love it or hate it, it is here to stay. Every company with existing products is figuring out how to stick AI into them, and it becomes very easy for these AI additions to be useless gimmicks.

Google is one of the most notorious companies in this regard. There’s almost nothing that Google hasn’t tried to stick AI or Gemini into at this point. At this point, its next target seems to be the Google Play Store, a platform that I thought would never need to be enhanced with AI. Google doesn’t think the same way I do, clearly.

You’ll Soon Be Able To Ask The Google Play Store Questions About Apps

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Image: Peter Holden/TalkAndroid

Google is working hard to push the AI revolution and with how quickly it has been working on updates to Google Gemini, it is very clear that the search giant doesn’t want to be left behind. It shows in how many of its services and apps, such as YouTube, Messages, Docs, Gmail, and Google itself; have been infused with that AI pathogen.

Well, there’s about to be a new addition to that list, and it is one that I never would have imagined would need AI in any capacity. It’s the Google Play Store, and we know about this development thanks to an APK teardown performed by the folks over at Android Authority. One of the latest editions of the app has certain lines of code that point to this new feature potentially arriving soon.

It seems the feature is going to be called “Ask a question” and it will be situated on the listing page for individual apps. This will give you a way to inquire more about what a certain app does or the features that it has and get an in-depth answer, generated by the wizardry and magic of AI.

I See The Point, But I Don’t See The Point At The Exact Same Time

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Image: Google

So, I sort of get it. The idea of this intended feature is to allow you to figure out whether an app has something you’re looking for (or doesn’t have something you’re trying to avoid). I can see the value in that, but the only problem is that I simply don’t think such a feature is needed that badly.

We’ve been using the Google Play Store for over a decade now, and in that time, I’ve never felt the need to ask it a question. I can usually tell whether an app can do what I want from reading the description. Something like this just seems like another way to clutter apps we’re already used to with more AI.

The Feature Might Arrive Relatively Soon

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Image: Google

Since this was discovered through an APK teardown, there’s no word on when this feature will actually make its way to the Google Play Store, but it does seem inevitable at this point. Google introduced a similar “Ask” feature in Photos, so I’d hardly think the Play Store will end up exempt if things have gone as far as inclusions in code.

But hey, I might be wrong. Does this seem like the kind of feature that you’d use often, or is it possible that I’m not appreciating certain angles? Let me know in the comments below.





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