Google is quietly phasing out a popular app that allowed users to purchase premium Hollywood films and TV shows.
The internet giant emailed users of Android TV to say the ‘Google Play Movies & TV app will no longer be available on your Android TV device from 05 October 2023’.
Customers will instead be able to buy or rent movies through the ‘Shop’ tab on Android TV, while content is also available through YouTube and Google TV.
Some users reacted with surprise at the announcement, with one writing ‘WTF!?!?’ and another saying it was ‘so sad’.
Others were more scathing, claiming the app was ‘rubbish anyway’ and that its removal was because Google ‘probably couldn’t get anyone to watch their content’.
Scrapped: Google is quietly phasing out its Google Play Movies & TV app for Android TV customers. The app allowed users to purchase premium Hollywood films and TV shows
The move all but signals the final nail in the coffin for Google’s Play brand.
Launched in 2012, the idea was for Google Play Store, Play Music, Play Newsstand, Play Books and Play Movies & TV to compete with Apple’s offerings across its iPhone range.
However, just six years later the company began phasing the name out.
Play Newsstand was rebranded as Google News in 2018, Play Music became YouTube Music in 2020, and Play Movies & TV morphed into Google TV for smartphone users in 2021.
That left Google Play Movies & TV only available for Android TV customers, but this will now come to an end next month, too.
Instead, an update will integrate purchases into the homescreen with the new ‘Shop’ tab, which works a lot like the ‘Library’ tab on Google TV.
It will support users’ existing library by syncing from Play Movies, Google TV, and YouTube.
Many customers won’t notice the difference, especially if they own newer Google TV gadgets such as Chromecast, which is a streaming media adapter that allows users to play online content such as videos and music on a digital television.
Like on smartphones, the Play Movies & TV app on Chromecast had already been replaced by Google TV.
However, if you have older products such as the Nvidia Shield TV then the change will affect how you purchase films and TV shows.
In terms of the Play brand, only Play Books now remains in the Play Store app.
Earlier this year, the store hit the headlines when it emerged that, along with Apple’s App Store, it was being flooded with fake reviews that are distorting the popularity of apps.
Some users reacted with surprise at the announcement, with one writing ‘WTF!?!?’ and another saying it was ‘so sad’
Others were more scathing, claiming the app was ‘rubbish anyway’ and that its removal was because Google ‘probably couldn’t get anyone to watch their content’
Change in strategy: The move all but signals the final nail in the coffin for Google’s Play brand
An investigation revealed that up to a quarter of reviews in the health and fitness section of Google’s Play Store were suspicious, while for Apple’s equivalent 17 per cent appear fake.
The analysis by consumer group Which? suggests that millions of consumers could be unwittingly handing over their personal data or money to apps that have cheated their way to the top of the world’s two most prominent mobile app stores.
Such is the scale of the problem that Which? also found that fake reviews are being openly sold by brokers, who pay Google to appear at the top of its search results.
These services offer bulk downloads, reviews or upvotes to help push apps up the rankings, making them seem more reputable if they have been downloaded a huge number of times.
Google did not comment on the analysis but said it had taken appropriate action against review brokers who used its search engine.
Google will now write your emails for you as Gmail is set to use generative AI
Google will now write your emails for you, the tech giant has announced.
Gmail, its messaging service with over 1.8bn users worldwide, will use the latest generative AI to compose detailed emails with just a simple prompt.
Revealing the latest development at its annual I/O conference, Google boss Sundar Pichai demonstrated how it could draft a letter to an airline demanding a refund for a cancelled flight.
The ‘Help Me Write’ feature will incorporate details from previous emails, and also give the user the option to ‘elaborate’ – in which it will write a longer, seemingly more persuasive and emotional, message.
Mr Pichai said the company was using the latest generative AI – the software behind its chatbot Bard and rival ChatGPT – to ‘radically’ reimagine all its core products.
(File photo) Google’s Gmail service will use AI to write entire emails from just one prompt
