Google Play Store Gets New Logo for Its 10th Anniversary

The company celebrated the app store's 10th birthday with a logo facelift and a promo.

Google's Play Store celebrated its 10th anniversary on July 25 and with it came a logo change, which is not too drastic as it still looks like its previous logo. The joyous celebration also comes with a promo for users.

Originally, the Google Play Store was an Android app store that launched as the Android Market in August 2008, a month after Apple introduced the App Store, Mashable reported. But the Android app store eventually evolved into a service that included Google Music and Google eBookstore.

Alphabet Inc. then rebranded all of the services under Google Play in March 2012. But Google chose to celebrate Google Play's birthday on July 25, marking the service's 10th anniversary.

Tech Giant Reveals New Google Play Logo

Because the Play Store is officially 10 years old, Google unveiled its new logo, which users will have to take a really hard look at to see the differences from the old logo. The new logo is very much like the old logo with its right pointing arrow or play symbol with several colored shapes combining to create the symbol with colors such as green, blue, red, and yellow-orange.

However, there are some minor differences, as the new logo features lightly duller corners than its predecessor and the colors are uniform instead of gradients. It appears that Google and several other tech companies are following a recent design trend that makes logos appear flatter and simpler.

Google Launches New Promo in Celebration of Play Store's 10th Anniversary

The tech giant is also celebrating the Google Play Store 10th anniversary with a new promo beginning July 25, which allows users to get 10 times the usual Play Points for those who make purchases, Engadget reported. Users can then redeem the points for other in-app items or Google Play Credits, which they can use to rent movies or purchase audiobooks.

Google Play Store now has more than 2.5 billion monthly users throughout 190 countries all over the world. It has also long been undergoing several changes, as in 2018, the tech giant rebadged Play Newsstand as Google News and in 2020, it completed the transition of Play Music to YouTube Music. Also this year, Google is removing its Movies & TV section and placing its contents in the TV app.

Google Play Store's history was also marred with controversy, as some apps that were available on the Android app store seemingly dodged Google's screening system. The Play Protect anti-malware system and data safety listings have later made the store more trustworthy than the previous years.

Google was also previously accused by Fortnite creator Epic Games and others of stifling the use of third-party payment systems and preventing manufacturer deals. In June, the company established stricter policies, requiring a number of apps to use the Play Store's billing system. The European Union partly reversed its stance on third-party payment platforms, causing the future of Google Play Store to become a little more uncertain.