Google Tipped to Be Working on 'Play Pass'

Google is said to be working on an app subscription service for Google Play. According to compelling evidence discovered in a report, Google Play may soon introduce a subscription service called 'Play Pass' that offers users paid apps and games for a monthly fee. As per the latest information, the new service may let Android users subscribe to paid apps on Google Play by paying a monthly fee. The potential feature was reportedly first spotted in a Play Store APK teardown back in June, while this week a Google survey about a subscription service for apps was also discovered. Notably, Google is yet to confirm its plans for the Play Pass subscription service.

Folks at XDA Developers had the first sign of the service when they discovered the potential feature called 'Play Pass' in a Play Store APK teardown in June this year. At the time, noted developer Kieron Quinn of MightyQuinnApps had suggested that the feature could be a subscription service. He found it while digging around the Google Play Store using the Xposed Framework. While turning feature flag to 'true' reportedly did not reveal any changes in the Play Store, decompiling the code showed that 'Play Pass' could have something to with a subscription service. However, since the feature couldn't be activated at the time, no details were available.

Meanwhile, in a survey conducted via the Google Opinion Rewards programme recently, the company was spotted asking users how well 'Pass' described an unnamed 'app store' that "has a subscription service that offers hundreds of dollars worth of paid apps and games for a monthly fee." This essentially indicates that the tech giant could be seeking to finalise the branding.

It is worth noting that Google has not provided any official details that suggest it will introduce an app subscription service called 'Play Pass'. Teardowns are speculative in nature as the service may or may not get the same features in its next update. However, the report does suggest that Google is at least planning on bringing it.