Navigating the Google Play apps offerings

When you’ve decided that you want to look at apps, you see the following options when you tap the link for one of the top-level categories:

• For You: The geniuses at Google have some mathematical wizardry that tries to match you with apps that they think you would like based upon what you’re already using. This is mostly a shot in the dark if you’re new to the Play Store. As you use your smartphone, these guesses improve over time.
• Top Charts: These are the best-selling apps. This is often a good indication that you may want to give it a try.
• Family: If you’re looking for apps suitable for kids, go here.
• Categories: This option takes you to a hierarchy of app types that is useful if you already know what you want to add. There is more on these different categories later in this chapter.
• Editors’ Choice: While relying on sales volumes in Top Charts is one way to find apps you may find valuable, this section is curated, hopefully with people who think like you.
• Early Access: Let’s say that you’ve reviewed 3.4 million apps, and you just haven’t found the right one for you. You can look at the apps that have just been added to the Google Play virtual shelves by accessing this section. These are the newest apps in the store.

Google is doing its best to help you find the app you need among its inventory of millions of choices. Today’s version of the Play Store has a link called Categories where you can start digging by app type.

• Art & Design: These apps let you exercise the powerful graphics process to make some cool images, from the abstract to the practical, such as floorplans.
• Augmented Reality: These apps give you the chance to use your camera lens and see things that are not there (in a good way).
• Auto & Vehicles: We love our cars. These apps help you buy them for less, enjoy them more, and enjoy them for a longer time.
• Beauty: These apps offer tips and techniques on how to look that much better.
• Comics: These apps are meant to be funny. Hopefully, you find something that tickles your funny bone.
• Communication: Yes, the Galaxy S20 phone comes with many communications apps, but these Play Store apps enhance what comes with the phone — for example, tools that automatically send a message if you’re running late to a meeting or text you if your kids leave a defined area.
• Dating: This the modern way to meet that special someone, or at least someone more interesting than Saturday night TV.
• Education: To quote Emil Faber, “Knowledge is good.” Senator Blutarsky agrees.
• Entertainment: Not games per se, but these apps are still fun: trivia, horoscopes, and frivolous noisemaking apps. (These also include Chuck Norris facts. Did you know that Chuck Norris can divide by 0?)
• Finance: This is the place to find mobile banking apps and tools to make managing your personal finances easier.
• Food & Drink: Here is the place to find the best restaurants and obtain the best recipes.
• Health & Fitness: This is a category for all apps related to mobile medical apps, including calorie counters, fitness tracking, and tools to help manage chronic conditions, such as diabetes.
• Lifestyle: This category is a catchall for apps that involve recreation or special interests, like philately or bird-watching.
• Maps & Navigation: Many apps tell you where you are and how to get to where you want to go. Some are updated with current conditions, and others are based on static maps that use typical travel times.
• Music & Audio: The Galaxy S20 comes with music and video services, but nothing says you have to like them. You may prefer offerings that are set up differently or have a selection of music that isn’t available elsewhere.
• News & Magazines: You’ll find a variety of apps that allow you to drill down until you get just the news or weather that’s more relevant to you than what’s available on your extended Home screen.
• Productivity: These apps are for money management (such as a tip calculator), voice recording (such as a stand-alone voice recorder), and time management (for example, an electronic to-do list).
• Reference: These apps include a range of reference books, such as dictionaries and translation guides. Think of this section as similar to the reference section of your local library or bookstore.
• Shopping: These apps give you rapid access to mobile shopping sites or allow you to do automated comparison shopping.
• Social: These are the social networking sites. If you think you know them all, check here just to be sure. Of course, you’ll find Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest, but you’ll also find dozens of other sites that are more narrowly focused and offer apps for the convenience of their users.
• Software Libraries: Computers of all sizes come with software libraries to take care of special functions, such as tools to manage ringtones, track app performance, and protect against malware.
• Sports: You can find sports sites to tell you the latest scores and analyses in this part of the Play Store.
• Themes: Your phone comes with color schemes, or themes. This part of the Play Store offers a broader selection.
• Tools: Some of these apps are widgets that help you with some fun capabilities. Others are more complicated and help you get more functionality from your phone.
• Travel: These apps are useful for traveling, including handy items, such as currency translations and travel guides.

Then there are the curated categories, which change over time. The Google Play Store does its best to keep these categories fresh and customized for your needs and tastes.

The Play Store’s algorithms aren’t always perfect. For some reason, they keep showing me curated apps related to fashion, personal hygiene, and self-grooming. This has to be a mistake.

Many of your favorite websites are now offering apps that are purpose-built for your phone. Chapter 7 talks about how you can access websites on your phone. You can use the full site with your high-resolution screen or use the mobile version. An alternative is to download the app for that website, and it will present the information you want from that website on your phone in a way that is even easier to access. In fact, when you enter a website, your phone looks to see if you have the corresponding app. If so, your phone automatically opens the app for you. Cool!

Navigating the Google Play games offerings

There are lots and lots of options for entertainment in this section, which you access by tapping the Games link on the offering categories line shown in Figure 8-2. They’re categorized as follows:

• For You: This is Google, so they have computers that take what they know about you so far and make a list of what may appeal to you based on that information.
• Top Charts: As with apps, these are the bestsellers among games. It’s a good place to start.
• Events: This is a newer category for multiplayer games where you play with or compete against other players or teams. In the last decade, you engaged whomever happened to be out there. Today, organizers schedule times for competitors to get together. These are called events.
• New: This is like Early Access for apps, but for games.
• Premium: These are the games that you can use for a price. Some are one-time fees; others involve ongoing charges. The benefit of paying for some game titles is that you don’t have to ignore ads. In other cases, the free games offer you just a taste of what you would get, and all the really cool things are only available when you pay the piper.
• Categories: This option takes you to a hierarchy of application types — useful if you already know what you want to add. I offer more info on the different categories later in this chapter.
• Editors’ Choice: Believe it or not, there are teams of editors who are paid good salaries to play new games and find the ones that are most fun. When they find one that’s extra fun, it goes on this list.
• Family: This is an entire section for games to keep the kids happy.

Your Galaxy S20 phone takes interactive gaming to a new level. Games in this section of the Play Store fall into the following categories:

• Action: These games are the typical bang-bang, shoot ’em up sort.
• Arcade: Think of games that are based on what you find in arcades: pinball, popping bubbles, racing games, and other games of skill and/or strategy.
• Board games: These are all the classics you played as a kid.
• Brain & Puzzle: Think crossword puzzles, Sudoku, and other word or number games.
• Cards: You can find an electronic version of virtually every card game ever invented. (If you know of any game that’s missing, let me know so that I can write the app and sell it to the three people who play it.)
• Casino: If you can find it in a casino, you can find it here.
• Casual: This crossover category includes simpler games, some of which are also arcade, action, or cards, but are distinguished by the ease with which you can pick them up, play them, and then put them down. Solitaire may be the most widespread example of a casual game.
• Educational: Who says games can’t be educational, too? That would not include anyone who has browsed this section!
• Music: Here are the music-based games you were looking for.
• Racing: Who needs one of those game consoles to race cars when you have your S20?
• Role Playing: This is the place to look if you want an immersive game that will take you to a new world.
• Sports: You can find sports sites to tell you the latest scores or find you fantasy sports leagues.
• Strategy: If you want to find how clever you are (or aren’t), strategy games are for you. Think chess or bridge, but on your S20.
• Trivia: What was the name of the high school in Welcome Back, Kotter? Which is larger: the moon or Pluto? If these questions capture your imagination, this is your new favorite category.
• Word: These apps include crossword puzzles and word search games.

Below the subcategories are rows of curated game categories. If you find a row that you like, you can start scrolling to the right to see the options within that curated category. Hopefully, the curator thinks like you do and can offer you lots of suggestions. This is particularly handy if you’re not sure what you want.

Free apps are great. But don’t be afraid of buying any apps that you’re going to use frequently. Apps usually cost very little, and the extra features may be worth it. Some people (including me) have an irrational resistance to paying $1.99 monthly for something they use all the time. Frankly, this is a little silly. Let’s all be rational and be willing to pay a little bit for the services we use.

Downloading the Facebook app

Follow these steps to add this app:

1. Tap the Play Store icon, and verify that the Offering category is for Apps.

2. In the Query box, type Facebook.

   Doing so brings up a drop-down screen like the one shown in Figure 8-3.

   As you can see in the search results, several options include the word Facebook. The other lines in the Apps section are for apps that include the word Facebook. These are typically for apps that enhance Facebook in their own ways — as of this moment, 112,160 of them. Rather than go through these one by one, stick with the one with the Facebook icon.

   

3. Tap the Facebook logo.

   When you tap the box, it brings up the screen shown in Figure 8-4.

   

   • Title Line: The top section has the formal name of the app just above the green Install button. After you click this to download and install the app, you see some other options. I give some examples later in this chapter.
   • Description: This tells you what the app does.
   • Screen Captures: These representative screens are a little too small to read, but they do add some nice color to the page.
   • What’s New: This information is important if you have a previous version of this app. Skip this section for now.
   • Ratings and Reviews: This particular app has about 4.1 stars out of 5. That’s not bad at all. The other numbers tell you how many folks have voted, how many have downloaded this app, the date it was released, and the size of the app in MB.
   • Similar Apps: Just in case you aren’t sure about this particular app, the good folks at Google offer some alternatives.
   • More by Facebook: The app developer in this case is Facebook. If you like the style of a particular developer, this section tells you what other apps that developer offers.
   • Based on Your Recent Activity: Play Store tells you the names of other apps downloaded by the customers who downloaded this app. It’s a good indicator of what else you may like.
   • Google Play Content: This is how you tell the Play Store whether this app is naughty or nice.

4. Tap the dark green button that says Install.

   You see the progress of the app downloading process. When the app is all there, it begins the installation process.

   At some point in the process, most apps give you a pop-up to let you know what information from your phone that the app will use. This is to give you an idea on how this particular app may affect your privacy. An example of a permission pop-up is shown in Figure 8-5.

   Before continuing to the next step, I want to point out some important elements on this page:

   

   Chapter 1 discusses the option to prevent an app from having access to your location information. I mention that you can allow apps to know where you are on a case-by-case basis. Here is where that issue comes up. Each app asks you for permission to access information, such as your location. If you don’t want the app to use that information or share it somehow, here’s where you find out whether the app uses this information. You may be able to limit the amount of location information. If you’re not comfortable with that, you should decline the app in its entirety.

   This is similar to the license agreements you sign when installing software on your PC. Hopefully, you read them all in detail and understand all the implications. In practice, you hope that it’s not a problem if lots of other people have accepted these conditions. In the case of a well-known app like Facebook, you’re probably safe, but you should be careful with less-popular apps.

   After the app downloads and installs, you will come back to a screen like the one in Figure 8-6.

   

5. Tap the dark green Open button.

   This brings up the Home screen for Facebook, as shown in Figure 8-7.

   If you have a Facebook account already, go ahead and enter your information. Things will look very familiar. If you don’t have a Facebook account, and you want to add one now, go on to the next section.

In any case, the Facebook icon appears on your Apps screen along with some other recently added apps, such as Angry Birds and Solitaire. This is seen in Figure 8-8.

If you want this app to be on your Home screen, press and hold the icon. The Facebook icon appears on your Home screen.