Before the whole Google I/O developer conference shebang starts, Google has chosen to honor the 9 apps that have won their Google Play Awards. The winners span nine categories, including three new awards like Most Inventive, Best Living Room Experience and Most Beautiful Game. The criteria for choosing the initial nominees per category and the eventual winners include overall quality, strong design, technical performance, and innovation. Aside from getting a silver Play trophy and of course bragging rights, the apps are featured on the Google Play Store.
The nine apps and their respective categories are the following. Since words like self-care and well-being are still very buzzy, the Standout Well-Being app is an important one and it goes to Woebot: Your Self-Care Expert, an app that has a robot to guide you through tools from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy if you’re suffering from things like anxiety, depression, and any other negative emotions. It helps track your moods, reduce stress, and basically live happier.
The Best Accessibility Experience goes to Envision AI, an app that helps visually impaired people “live more independently” through various tools and features to help them navigate various situations. The Best Social Impact app goes to Wisdo which lets you connect with people who are going through the same things as you are. It has various groups that deal with Body Positivity, Going Green, LGBTQ+, Motherhood, Chronic Pain, etc.
The Best Living Room Experience is a new category and the first award goes to Neverthink, an app that lets you watch for hours a specific channel with YouTube videos that are “100% human curated”. The Standout Build for Billions Experience, which brings optimized performance, localization, and culturalization for emerging markets goes to design app Canva. The Best Breakthrough App goes to digital pen friend app Slowly.
As for games, 3 have received recognition. The first Most Beautiful Game app goes to Shadowgun Legends, a first-person or PvP free shooting game. The Most Inventive app is also a new category and the first ever award goes to Tick Tock: A Tale for Two, a “cooperative puzzle game” that is meant to be played by, obviously, two players. And if you’re still in an Avengers: Endgame hangover, the Best Breakthrough Game is Marvel Strike Force, which lets you play your favorite Marvel characters, even those you had to say goodbye to in the movie.
