A leaked screenshot from a Google employee has revealed upcoming changes to the Google Play Store as we know it ahead of an expected official reveal at the Google I/O event at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, on May 15th to 17th.
What appears online today seems to show a more simplified version of the Google Play Store’s front of house, ditching some of the clutter and flipping the background from black to white. Notably the sleek appearance (which maybe features just a passing resemblance to the ‘tiling’ seen on Windows Phone) now becomes more basic and easy to browse, with departments such as Apps, Games, Music and Books cleanly defined and with icons appearing next to them. We’re reminded of what the Android Market once was before it became Google Play little over a year ago.
The premature layout leak appeared on the Google-owned video site YouTube during its ‘dogfooding’ period. This choice term of phrase refers to a time when only internal Google staffers get to play around with future revamps and software updates before the general mobile using public gets it up on their Android devices.
As a nod to this phase of development the Google Play icon has even been changed to feature what appears to be a dog bowl and bone!
Another rumour from Google ahead of its annual developer conference includes further proof of the existence of a new chat service named ‘Babel’ (possibly a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference – we’d hope so).
Interestingly, another rumour doing the rounds suggests Google might soon purchase popular mobile messaging software WhatsApp. How this might affect or incorporate Babel is also up for speculation, but we should find out for sure at Google I/O next month.