Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google brought Collections to the Play Store a couple of years ago.
- So far, all Play Store widgets feature multiple collections displayed at once.
- Google is now working on single collection widgets to highlight only your favorites.
Two years ago, the Google Play Store introduced Collections, a method of making it easier to access thematically similar apps by grouping them according to themes like Shop, Listen, Food, and more. It wasn’t long before Google introduced some new Collections widgets, giving us quick access to these categories right from the home screen. We’ve now seen Google working on the next evolution of Play Store widgets, splitting Collections into multiple separate widgets.
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For this, we are looking at version 52.1.26-31 of the Play Store app for Android. Like the Google Contacts changes we just covered for you, you won’t see any of the updates we’re discussing here on your phone today.
Until now, you have been able to choose between two Play Store widgets through which you can access your Collections. There’s a small one with just icons for individual Collections, or a larger widget that lists your Collections on the left edge. Depending on the size you have configured, you probably won’t see all of the available collection types at once.
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
But now Google is working to make it much easier to focus on the specific collections that matter most when choosing a widget. With this release, Google has started preparing to let you choose between individual widgets for all your favorite collections:
In total, users should be able to choose from eight: food, games, listening, reading, shopping, social, traveling and watching.
This isn’t advanced enough for us to implement any of these new Collections widgets on the home screen to show you what they look like there and play with the sizes, but at least this is a good first look at where things are headed.
Which collections do you find most useful? Would you be interested in implementing one of these single flavor widgets on your phone? Let us know which one in the comments.
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