Tech companies can try as they might to hide what they’re working on, but code breadcrumbs left across lines of software version histories tell a story. Google has a history of leaving these trails across Android updates, and anything relating to the Google Play Store is no different. For example, flags were discovered this week that tipped us off toGoogle potentially alerting usersabout how to use its new security features. Earlier in 2023, those same breadcrumbs alerted tech personalities and groups, to find out about Cubes. Cubes is in its infancy and is nowhere near release-ready, but it does show that Google is cooking up something interesting.
Cubes was first spotted in January and, when looked into, was just abasic skeleton showcasing what Google was working towards. That skeleton was then made inaccessible, but flags in the Android OS code showed that things were being worked on in the background. Nail Sadykov of the Google News Telegram channel noticed the same thing, and alsoshowcased a new widgetthat appeared to be directly related to the concept. Fast-forward to November, and a lot of the framework that Google’s been working on seems to have been finished.
The latest version of the Play Store app contains new breadcrumbs that were discovered byGoogle News Telegram. Cubes seems like it will be a central hub for discovering new apps across a multitude of categories, but we really can’t say for sure. It may curate a list of app information, deals, and updates across customized categories that the user chooses. There are options for choosing specific apps to include in the feed, so this is certainly going to be a tailored experience for each person with access to Google Play.
Source:Google News Telegram
Additionally,AssembleDebug discoveredthat it appears people will be able to shop directly from Cubes. For what is unknown, however. Until Google makes an announcement regarding this new feature, a lot of what we or anyone else can say about the widget/app/feed is what has been dug up from specific flags or the user interface (that doesn’t have any content in it because the backend has not been made public yet). It feels like a treasure hunt, where every time someone finds a new clue, Google lets a little bit more ooze out from behind its closed seal of secrecy.
While there is no set time frame for what this could potentially be unveiled by Google, it seems like Cubes will be just another way to get personalized feeds based off of either currently-installed applications or ones yet to be added to users’ accounts. It has the shape of a pretty neat feature, but we feel like that kind of thing is already located on the Play Store as is. Nonetheless, Google needs some good press after everything the company is facing in thelandmark antitrust casethat’s in the courtroom right now. Google was just outed forpaying Apple 36% of all search revenuederived from Safari. Additionally,Google tried paying Epic Games $147 millionto put Fortnite back on the Play Store exclusively.
