Google recently added a social layer to the Play Store. That's great, but what if Google+ had an even tighter integration with Google Play? I threw together some mockups of what I'd like to see if Google+ & Play completely merged.
As part of the now more social Play Store, there's a new page with all of your reviews and a new recommendation algorithm that's highly influenced by your contacts' opinions. It's a great start, but I don't think it should stop there. The Play Store, I think, should be much, much closer to Google+, both in features and in appearance.
Dreaming Up a New Look
Let's start with looks. Why does the Store have to look like a completely different site? I think the interface looks cleaner when using Google+'s appearance for inspiration:
Let's see some more changes:
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| Our imagined improved reviews tab with Play Store content |
Google+ Profile & Play
Do you know the Reviews tab on your profile, the place where you can see all your reviews of local businesses? Have you noticed how you can't see other types of reviews, such as the ones you leave on Google Play?
Well, why not change that? In this mockup, you can see with all kinds of reviews: not only businesses but also apps, games, movies, books, music albums and so on. Each of them with their own colour to help tell them apart, and with helpful buttons to buy or preview each of them, or to write your own review.
But Google Play is not just the Store, is it?
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| Here's Google Play Music, inside Google+ |
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| Don't forget Movies & TV |
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| And here's Books too |
In my dreamed-up version, all of these Play services, just like the Store, can be opened from the top-left menu and can be navigated using the tabs at the top.
However, they also work basically the same as they do now. Let's see something new:
This mockup shows Google Play Newsstand, but it's quite different from its current incarnation. You can actually use this to read not only your magazines, but also new articles from your sources. Let's say you add +Rolling Stone to your circles, and they have verified their website on Google+. From that moment on, all new articles on their webpage will go to your Newsstand.
Let's say you want to read one of these articles. You click on it, and this happens:
The article goes full size, letting you read it whole and add your comment. This makes use of Google+ Comments, so it allows you to also share your comment as a Google+ post to your followers, or even to read (and reply to) other users' comments.
When you're done reading that article, you can click it again to make it small again, or press the "J" key (same as you do with posts in the Stream) or arrows on your keyboard to go to the next article.
Google+ Pages & Play
But is this everything integration can offer? Going back to the Rolling Stone example, let's check out more possibilities on their Google+ page:
A new "Google Play" tab It gathers everything they have on Google Play (in this case, news and magazines) and show them to you, all right there, under the same roof. And remember that you only have to circle the page in order to get its articles on Newsstand.
So, what happens with musicians and music bands? On +Relient K's page we can see all the music we own from them and, of course, play it. We can also see (and try out) their greatest hits and a complete list of their albums. Right now we have to go to three different places to do those things, so I'd say it makes things easier.
If you click one of the albums you go to the album's page, where you can see (and play) all the songs you have bought, buy those you haven't, or simply listen to a free sample. You can also read the opinion of other users about the album and leave your own. Again, all in the same place.
Also, you may have noticed that player at the bottom. It should appear every time you start playing something and stay there with you until you're done - whether you stay on the same page, or go back to your stream to read some posts from your friends.
Some artists are known for more than one talent. +Madonna, for example, is both a musician and an actress. Right now there's one place to read about her, another to buy her music, another to listen to it, another to buy her movies and yet another to watch them.
Wouldn't it be better to make things simpler by having them all in one place?
We were saying that you can click a specific movie from Madonna, right from her profile. Then, you should see this page, which allows you to buy or rent it (both from Google Play or from local stores using Google Shopping), as well as watching its trailer and promotion shots, read and write reviews.
Not just that; you can also see the movie's cast, supposing they have a Google+ profile, making it easier to discover them and add them to your circles.
Movies aren't only related to people, though. Sometimes we follow a brand (say +Pacific Rim or +Star Wars because we want to stay informed about new related products. Thanks to the integration between Google Play and Google+ we can see all their content in the same place, and know that if there's ever any new content we'll be able to find it with ease.
Let's say we click on one of those books in +Pacific Rim's page. We're taken to a page where we can read a free sample, add it to our library and buy the whole book if we like it.
Integrating Android Apps and Games with Google+
This integration could also be useful for Android apps and games. Let's see we're checking out +Google Maps or +Angry Birds. By having a list of posts from the related brand we can see how active their developers are, and see related news.
And same as you get Google+ related news in Google Play, you can also choose to get Play-related notifications in Google+ when someone in your circles has a new product.
What do you think of these suggestions? Is there something you don't agree with? Is there anything we left out and you'd like to see included? Make sure to add your opinion in the comments.