Google Play Store will soon get family sharing and gifting options
It looks like the Google Play Store is finally catching on to the theme of “sharing is caring.” A new update is out for the store — download is right here — and while it doesn’t seem to add any new features right now, an APK teardown has revealed that Google loaded it up with some exciting new elements in preparation of forthcoming features.
For starters, it looks like we’ll finally get family sharing. This would enable a “family” to purchase items and share them. The relevant strings found in the APK indicate that families could either charge purchases to a shared credit card, or have individuals continue to use their own.
You’ll be able to add and remove family members at will, and if you have any children you’ll be able to approve or disapprove their Google Play purchases if they request to buy something. Neato. Unfortunately some of the details about this feature are still unclear, such as which exact types of content can be shared, as well as whether existing purchases can be shared. Those are things we’re sure will be cleared up once Google gets around to bringing the update out.
Furthermore, we should be getting the option to send Google Play gifts to friends and family. You could buy something — such as an app or a song, we presume — and simply send it to someone so they can enjoy it. Lastly, it seems Google is prepping a feature that’ll allow you to add a credit card to your account using NFC if it’s an NFC-enabled card. No more having to punch numbers and addresses in!
All these features sound great and we obviously can’t wait until Google delivers the goods. Unfortunately we’re not sure when exactly that’ll happen, but it typically doesn’t take long for Google to get things ready to go after they start hiding code inside their apps.