Google Play

Google Play

The Play Store on a Galaxy Nexus.

Main article: Google Play

Google Play is an online software store developed by Google for Android devices. An application program ("app") called "Play Store" is preinstalled on most Android devices and allows users to browse and download apps published by third-party developers, hosted on Google Play. As of June 2012, there were more than 600,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number of applications downloaded from the Play Store exceeded 20 billion.^[14] The operating system itself is installed on 400 million total devices.^[76]
Only devices that comply with Google's compatibility requirements are allowed to preinstall and access the Play Store.^[77] The app filters the list of available applications to those that are compatible with the user's device, and developers may restrict their applications to particular carriers or countries for business reasons.^[78]
Google offers many free applications in the Play Store including Google Voice, Google Goggles, Gesture Search, Google Translate, Google Shopper, Listen and My Tracks. In August 2010, Google launched "Voice Actions for Android",^[79] which allows users to search, write messages, and initiate calls by voice.