What you need to know
- Google’s upcoming “Cubes” feature was spotted early on in the Play Store and the highlight card reveals what users can expect when it fully rolls out.
- The map suggests that Cubes will be the “only place” where users can interact with shows, shopping apps, food, music and more.
- The background of the card shows the potential user interface alongside “Continue Watching” and “Continue Playing”, allowing users to return to their activities.
Google seemed to accidentally debut its upcoming “Cubes” feature on the Play Store, giving us a good idea of what to expect.
As 9to5Google discovered, on the way to the Play Store’s Apps tab was an interesting animated card with a “Continue Watching” banner. Its early appearance is punctuated by a paw icon, which Google typically uses to represent features in tests, and it appeared on at least one of our devices.
The map is described as “a shortcut to what’s important” and alludes to a location that users can enter to “watch, shop, and more all in one place.”
Oddly enough, tapping the card takes users to a page dedicated to the upcoming Cubes feature. However, it is completely empty. It is speculated that the page could contain Google’s official reveal and details about Cubes once the feature is rolled out.
The map listed examples of where users could “watch” and “shop” in cubes. The former highlighted streaming services like Hulu, Max and Amazon Prime, while the latter highlighted shopping websites and restaurants like McDonald’s.
You can see the map above in the screenshots below:
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Further examination of the map’s background revealed what the Cubes UI will likely look like at launch. Users may find a number of options above such as: B. “Seeing, listening, reading, playing and shopping”. Images suggest that Listen will direct users to podcast recommendations and even some information from Spotify’s New Music Friday.
“Continue Watching” and “Continue Playing” sections have been discovered in their respective tabs, designed to help users get back to what they were doing before.
Apart from the slip-up, it is unclear when Google plans to officially introduce Cubes to the Play Store.
This early preview of Cubes seems to indicate that users may not be removed from the Play Store as originally thought. Cubes was first spotted last November and it appeared to be a new app powered by the Play Store rather than an App Store experience. While it looks like users will be able to decide which apps work with cubes for content recommendations, Google could also add a selection of “pre-selected” apps to the rollout.
This early preview also apparently hinted at the possibility of a Social tab and a more specific Food tab. It’s currently unclear when Cubes will officially launch, but looks suggest it won’t be long.