According to Android Authority, Google is developing a new, in-app community forum for gamers within the Play Store, allowing users to create posts, share tips, ask questions, and initiate discussions about games.
This development follows several months of observation regarding a forum-like feature within the Google Play Store. Initial observations were insufficient to draw definitive conclusions, but subsequent findings have provided enough evidence to indicate Google’s work on a gaming-related community forum. This feature will enable users to share gaming tips, pose questions, and participate in discussions directly within the Play Store environment.
In April, strings of code related to public posting within a community were identified in the Google Play Store. These strings included phrases such as “You’re posting publicly across Google Play. Please follow our community guidelines,” and instructions for interacting with content, including “To remove a reaction, tap the reaction icon again.” The code also indicated that “Reactions are used across Google, including Google Play.”
Further strings suggested user actions such as “Add a comment” and the ability to “Discard your post?” System messages also appeared for content management, including “Your post was deleted,” “Your reply was deleted,” “The post was flagged as inappropriate,” “The post was flagged as spam,” “The reply was flagged as inappropriate,” and “The reply was flagged as spam.” Additionally, a prompt for content length, “Your post is too short. Try to be more descriptive,” and a status indicator, “Posting…,” were present. These code elements collectively indicated that the forthcoming feature would support the creation and deletion of posts, along with the addition of comments and reactions, all within a designated “community” section of the Google Play Store.
Further analysis in June revealed additional strings that provided more insight into the nature of this forum. These new strings included “Posts may appear publicly with your Google Account name and photo” and “Posts must follow Google policies.” They also outlined user control over their content: “You can delete your post anytime and view all your posts in %1$s.” Guidelines for user conduct were also specified: “Remember to keep your posts and comments respectful and to follow our %2$s.” The presence of labels like “How your posts appear,” “Your Contributions,” and “Your Community” corroborated the concept of a forum-like structure, where users would have visibility into their own content and their participation within the community.
Concurrently with these new strings, Google incorporated three specific URLs, which, while not yet active, offer structural clues about the feature’s intended purpose. The URLs are: “https://support.google.com/googleplay?p=games-community-forum-content-policies,” “https://support.google.com/googleplay?p=games-community-forum-post,” and “https://support.google.com/googleplay?p=games-community-forum-reactions.” The structure of these URLs strongly suggests that the feature is designed for Google Play Games users and aims to function as a community forum, providing guidelines for content, posting procedures, and reaction mechanisms.
With the release of Google Play Store version 47.4.31-31, the user interface (UI) for this “Google Play Games Community Forum” feature was successfully enabled. This activation provides an early preview of its appearance and functionality. A new “Your contribution” option is being integrated into the Play Store’s “My apps and devices” section. Although the feature is still under development, and some placeholder text is visible, the accompanying icons provide clarity regarding the purpose of each component on this page. Options related to “Likes,” “Comments,” and “Posts” are clearly identifiable. The descriptive text associated with these options further clarifies the objective of this upcoming feature. Specifically, the text indicates the purpose as: “Share gaming tips, ask questions, and get discussions going” and “Show your appreciation to help posts and comments get noticed.” These descriptions confirm the forum’s role in facilitating user interaction and content sharing.
Based on the cumulative evidence, it is evident that Google is developing a community forum feature within the Play Store. This forum will enable users to exchange gaming tips, pose questions, and engage in discussions. The “My contribution” section will serve as a personalized profile page for users, displaying their authored posts, liked content, and comments made on other users’ posts. This integration aims to centralize user activity related to gaming within the Play Store environment.
Google’s ongoing efforts to promote Google Play Games on PC, combined with its work to integrate features from the standalone Google Play Games application directly into the Play Store, suggest a broader strategy. The “Games Community Forum” could be a component of this plan to establish the Play Store as a primary hub for gamers. Should this forum extend to Play Games for PC, it would offer users a unified platform for discussing games across both Android and PC ecosystems, thereby encompassing a significant segment of the gaming and forum landscape.
Google has not yet made an official announcement regarding this “Games Community Forum” feature within the Play Store. Given its current descriptive name may not be suitable for marketing purposes, there is a possibility that the feature will be launched under a different brand name upon its public release. An APK teardown, while providing insights into potential future features based on in-progress code, does not guarantee that such predicted features will ultimately be included in a public release.
