Google Play integrates Gemini for better gaming support

Google has just announced a series of major updates to Google Play, focusing on cross-platform gaming and enhancing gaming with the Gemini integration. The goal of these changes is to help users spend less time searching and more time enjoying the content they love.

To address the often fragmented gamer experience across multiple platforms and devices, Google has made a series of improvements to connect these elements into one seamless ecosystem.

One of the notable features is Play Games Sidekick, a new in-game interface that provides useful tools and information. The highlight of Sidekick is the button that directly accesses Gemini Live, an AI assistant that can “look” at your game screen to offer real-time tips and strategies.

Instead of having to leave the game to search for instructions, users can now ask questions by voice and get help instantly. This feature will start rolling out to select titles in the coming months.

To further personalize and engage the community, Google is also introducing platform-level gamer profiles, a common profile that helps users track their stats and achievements across all their games, working on both mobile and PC.

Profiles can also be customized with AI-generated avatars. Rewards like Google Play Points will be more tightly integrated, and a new feature called Play Games Leagues will be introduced, allowing users to compete with friends and the community for rewards.

In addition, the game detail pages have also been improved, adding forums so that players can directly ask questions and share experiences with each other. Finally, the Google Play Games platform on PC has officially ended the beta phase and been widely released, affirming Google's commitment to building a multi-platform gaming ecosystem.

All of these updates will be housed in a new central location: the “You” tab. This is a fully personalized space that displays curated content for each user, including rewards, subscriptions, recommendations, stats, and updates. For gamers, the new gamer profile will be at the center of the experience in this tab.

Going beyond games, the “You” tab also incorporates relevant content from your other interests and apps, like suggesting new audiobooks or letting you quickly jump back to a novel or podcast episode you were listening to.

Along with the big changes, the “Apps” tab has also been upgraded with curated seasonal themes and a “Guided Search” feature that uses AI to help users find apps that match their goals more intuitively.

The series of updates to the integrated gaming platform and “You” tab will begin rolling out this week in select markets, and will expand to additional countries on October 1.