Google Play makes good on its promise to surface device-specific content on Chromebooks

If you use the Google Play Store on your Chromebook to install apps and games instead of just relying on web apps or PWAs for everything, then you’ll likely know that there are plenty of great experiences that you can take advantage of on your device. Mind you, most are not native to laptop screens and haven’t been optimized for Chrome OS, but with games especially, there are still plenty of things you can install and load up for a fun time.

Right below the terrible Android app experience on Chromebooks ranks the Play Store itself and its lack of content discovery for these larger screen devices, but back when Google added scaling presets for Android apps on its OS, the company also promised that it would do a better job in helping new Chromebook owners find things to do on their laptops that were made just for them instead of simply being adapted from phones.

I’ve opened the store a few times over the past handful of weeks, and I’ve noticed that the company seems to be making good on that promise already. If you look at the images below, you’ll notice that the homepage of the Play Store’s apps and games sections now list curated, Chromebook-specific experiences that you can grab to make the most of your device.

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In addition to the “Premium Games” that were already prominently featured in the games section, the main games page will show you titles that work best on larger screens, with gamepads, and so on as long as you are accessing it from a Chromebook. That’s right, it detects your device and displays relevant content here. You’ll see headers like “Find your next obsession: Play your favorites on Chromebook”, and more Chromebook-specific target phrases.

On the “Apps” homepage, many of the exciting creativity-focused services that have been promoted as a part of the Chromebook Perks program in order to shift user thinking away from Google’s laptops just and only being used for web browsing have their own large listings, along with phrases like “Creativity on Chromebooks: Apps to boost your creativity”, and so on.

Other segments include apps for focus and productivity, entertainment, coding, including Cloud Stop Motion, Piper Make, and Scratch, and more. As you scroll down, the listings do become less Chromebook focused, which I hope is fixed with time, but the fact that so many highly specific apps and games are already being populated for those who are just buying a new Chrome OS device and may be looking to discover something to kickstart their journey is both promising and exciting.