Video: Quick Look at Official Google Play 4.0 and Some of Its New Features

Now that Google has officially announced Google Play 4.0 and we no longer have to continue to show off the broken preview we brought to you weeks ago, we figured it was time to do a proper walk-through of this new goodness. Overall, the Play store is setup in a similar way to what you saw in version 3.0, but the overall theme has been updated to a much cleaner, Holo-style and Google Now-esque UI. It’s a major improvement, at least to me. 

So what’s new outside of the new UI? Two things stuck out to me. There are new action overflow mini-menus (pictured below, left)  in some of the cards that are displayed. So if you want to install an app, rent a movie, buy a book, or add something to a wish list, you can do that without actually entering the specific app page or product listing. If you choose to install app, for example, the permissions pop-up appears and then installs while you remain in the same position. You no longer have to enter pages, install, and then back out, hoping that Google returns you to the exact place you left off at.

The second thing I noticed is that the auto-update feature (picture below, right) for apps has moved into the top right action overflow menu. It used to be listed just above the “Rate & review” section of an app listing, but is no longer there. So if you want to individually toggle apps to auto-update, you’ll have to do so through the menu in the top right.

Don’t forget, you can download the new Google Play version 4.0.25 here.

Full video tour below.