Google Play Store To Introduce Autoplaying Videos With A Catch

Autoplaying videos have become quite the trend even with the negative attitude towards autoplaying video adds on web browsers. Ironically, one of those that do autoplay videos is Google, at least as far as its properties are concerned. That may make sense on YouTube and on Google searches but now the tech giant will be bringing that capability to an almost unexpected avenue: videos on listings in the Google Play Store starting this month.

Before users sharpen their pitchforks, Google will most likely make the "feature" optional. Just like on YouTube or the Web, autoplaying videos on Google Play Store can hopefully be turned off or enabled only under certain Internet connections. That and they will play silently until you say otherwise.

Google wants users to "discover your content at a glance" by automatically playing videos in Google Play Store listings. Or at least that's the reason it is giving developers for the perhaps unsolicited and unexpected feature. In Google's mind, users will perhaps gravitate more towards apps that suddenly play their promotional video rather than turn away in annoyance.

There is, however, a catch to the elevated status Google will be giving developers. Those videos of theirs must not contain any ads or be monetized on YouTube's platform. That would cause ads to sometimes play first before the actual video, which would cause users to confuse the ad for the real product.

In order to avoid that confusion, Google wants developers to demonetize videos they use in Play Store listings or remove ads from the same before November 1, 2019. If they don't, their videos won't be shown on Google Play Store at all. Until developers fall in line, however, users might be a bit confused by whatever videos start playing when they browse through the store, presuming they don't turn off the feature immediately in the first place.