Introducing Collections, a new on-device surface for your content

Posted by Cullen Rotroff, Product Manager, Google Play

Over the past year, the Play Store has evolved into a dynamic discovery engine for your apps and their great content. We continue to invest in features that connect the best app experiences with the people who love them. At this year's Google I/O, we announced an exciting new surface on the device that extends your content discovery beyond the Play Store, Powered by Engage SDK.

Today we are pleased to announce that this brand new surface is ready for the spotlight. Introduction Collections: a seamless way to display personalized content and guide users on a continuous journey that leads directly to your app.

Extend your app's reach beyond the Play Store

Collections is an immersive, full-screen space that automatically organizes the best and most relevant content from installed apps into intent-driven spaces like Watch, Listen, Shop, or Social. From there, users deep-link directly to your app to complete their journey, whether that’s enjoying your content or completing a purchase.

You can use this surface to highlight your most important content, including personalized recommendations and promotions. If a user has installed your app but isn’t logged in, Collections can encourage them to log in to see your most personalized content. And if your app is integrated but not installed, Collections can recommend users to install it.

Users enter Collections through a Play Store widget. Without having to install a new app, users can simply preview the experience in the Play Store and then add the widget to their home screen.

Collections is an immersive full-screen space that automatically organizes the best and most relevant content from installed apps

Engage users with personalized and customizable messages

There are several ways to use collections to engage users.

Follow-up trips are the anchor of this experience, appearing at the top of most spaces to help users resume their journey with a tap. For example:

• In the store, users can retrieve an abandoned cart.
• Listen lets users return to a recently played album, playlist, podcast, audiobook, or live radio station.
• And in Food, users can retrieve an open cart or reorder a recent meal.

We also understand that developers know their users best. To give you more control over the collection experience, you can create up to five collections. recommendation clusters. These clusters can be personalized based on your user’s behavior in your app and organized by theme, such as new releases, price drops, or the user’s favorite topics. For users who aren’t logged into your app, you can provide content with broad appeal to encourage a new session.

Engage users through ongoing processes (such as 'Keep listening') or with recommendation clusters (such as 'Today's Top Hits')

Finally, Collections puts hero content in the spotlight featured clustera larger, more premium UI template. You can display one personalized featured card per user and update it dynamically throughout the day. The featured cluster is best reserved for the best personalized promotions and deals, for example:

• Promote memberships and special business models, such as a loyalty program.
• Put your best personalized offers in the spotlight.
• Announce new products and app features.

The 'Collections' cluster puts your hero content in the spotlight

Getting Started with Engage SDK

To use Collections, you need to integrate with Enable SDKa client-side integration that uses on-device APIs and takes most developers about a week to complete. The integration is designed to be simple and lightweight, adding less than 50 KB to the average app APK.

Engage SDK enables your apps to push personalized app content to collections. You don’t need to start and maintain a new content strategy, as the integration is designed for your app’s front page personalized content. Since you already have the content strategy, metadata, and required personalization, all you need to do is publish it with Engage SDK.

Today we're inviting all apps with users in the United States and content in our supported categories: Watching, listening, reading, shopping, eating, social, travel & events, and health & fitness – to join. Over 35 top apps are already integrated with Engage SDK, including Adidas, Amazon Prime Video, Audible, Best buy, iHeartRadio, Next door, Spotify, ShoppingAnd Walmart.

Visit our Engage SDK Integration Guide to see if your app meets the eligibility and requirements and to express your interest.

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