Google Play has seen tremendous growth over the past year, reaching more than 1 billion Android users across 190 countries. As a way to recognize their incredible developer community and highlight some of the best apps and games, they’re kicking off their first-ever “Google Play Awards”.
The program will showcase five nominees across 10 award categories and feature them in a dedicated collection on Google Play. Nominees were selected by a panel of experts on the Google Play team based on criteria emphasizing app quality, innovation, and having a launch or major update in the last 12 months.
The winners of each category will be announced at Google I/O in May.
The full list of categories and nominees.
According to TechCrunch, some of the apps in this list made appearances in Apple’s “Best of” 2015 list as well, including Robinhood and Hopper. Robinhood additionally became the first finance company to ever win the Apple Design Award last year, and was a runner-up for best iPhone app of 2015.
Here’s the list:
Standout Startup
Apps from new developers that offer a unique experience while achieving strong install growth: Dubsmash, Hopper, Musical.ly, Robinhood and Vrse
Standout Indie
Games from indie developers that focus on artistic design, high quality and innovative gameplay: Alphabear, Alto’s Adventure, Fast like a Fox, Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector and Prune
Best Families App
Apps or games with family friendly design that encourage creativity and exploration: Card Wars – Adventure Time, LEGO Jurassic World™, My Very Hungry Caterpillar, Thinkrolls 2 and Toca Nature.
Best Use of Material Design
First-class implementation of material design concepts that deliver an immersive and innovative user experience: Bring!, Robinhood, The Fabulous, Todoist and Vevo.
Best Use of Google Play Game Services
High quality games with several strong GPGS feature implementations: Sea Battle 2, Table Tennis Touch, Tapventures, TowerMadness 2 and Zombie Highway 2.
Early Adopter
Early adopter of a nascent technology or platform, providing a delightful user experience: Glide, Mechanic Escape, Minecraft: Story Mode, World Around Me and Zumper.
Go Global
Apps or games with great localization and culturalization, or subject matter appeal, across multiple regions: Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle, Freeletics Bodyweight, Memrise, Musixmatch and Pokémon Shuffle Mobile.
Most Innovative
Apps or games offering a highly engaging novelty experience or unique benefit: Fast like a Fox, NYT VR, SmartNews, The Fabulous and This War of Mine.
Best App
A true representation of beautiful design, intuitive UX and high user appeal, quality and rating: BuzzFeed News, Colorfy, Houzz, TuneIn Radio and Yummly.
Best Game
Games with strong mechanics, informative tutorial, broad appeal and tasteful design: Alphabear, Clash of Kings, Clash Royale, MARVEL Future Fight and Star Wars™: Galaxy of Heroes.
Join the ceremony on May 19th at 7:00 pm PDT (5:00 pm East African Time) or via the live stream.
