C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The Google Play Store is starting to roll out a local recommendations feature.
- This feature uses your device’s approximate location to provide locally-relevant contextual information like promotions or app recommendations.
- The opt-in feature is starting to slowly roll out to some devices.
The Google Play Store is where most Android users go to download new apps and games. While many of the most popular apps and games are available globally, some software is only available in certain regions, a practice known as region locking. This is possible because the Play Store checks what country you’re in to serve you region-specific content. Beyond that, though, the store doesn’t check whether you’re in a particular city or state before recommending content. However, that could soon change as the Google Play Store is rolling out a feature that uses your device’s location to recommend local content.
When I opened the Google Play Store app on my Galaxy Z Flip 6 the other day, I was met by a pop-up that asked me whether I “want[ed] to see local recommendations in Google Play.” It continued: “Play can use your device location to recommend apps, offers, and other local content that are relevant in your area.”
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
After tapping Continue, Android asked whether I wanted to grant the Google Play Store app access to my device’s approximate location, a rarely-used permission that was introduced back in Android 12. Apps that are granted access to a device’s approximate location are given an estimate of the device’s location that’s accurate to within about 3 square kilometers (about 1.2 square miles), according to Google’s documentation. This level of location accuracy should be more than enough for Google Play to provide locally relevant information.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Beyond showing you locally relevant promotions or app recommendations, the Google Play Store will also use your device’s approximate location to “enforce local guidelines on content and distribution,” according to a support page. It’s unclear exactly what this means for app availability, but it’s possible that Google Play will hide certain apps based on your current (approximate) location regardless of whether or not those apps are available in the country your Play Store account is set to.
If you’d like to opt out of Google Play’s local recommendation feature, you can navigate to the Play Store’s settings page, expand the General dropdown, and toggle Use device location off. Alternatively, you can remove the Play Store’s access to your device’s location through the Android Settings app.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
So far, I’ve only seen this feature on a single device. I asked several other users if they had received this feature, and they all said no. I don’t know if Google is in the midst of rolling this out more widely, but given the fact that a support page already exists for it, it’s likely to appear for more users soon.