What you need to know
- Google’s upcoming “Cubes” feature was spotted early on the Play Store and its highlight card spills what users can expect on its full arrival.
- The card suggests Cubes will be the “one place” for users to interact with shows, shopping apps, food, music, and more.
- The background of the card showcases its potential UI alongside “continue watching” and “continue playing” so users can get back into their activities.
Google seemed to accidentally show off its upcoming “Cubes” feature on the Play Store, giving us a good idea of what to expect.
As spotted by 9to5Google, heading into the Apps tab of the Play Store held an interesting animated card with a “continue watching” banner. Its early appearance is furthered by a paw icon, which Google typically uses to represent features in testing, and it has shown up on at least one of our devices.
The card is described as “a shortcut to what matters,” alluding to a place users could enter to “watch, shop, and more in one place.”
Curiously, tapping the card sends users to a page dedicated to the coming Cubes feature. However, it’s completely blank. It’s speculated that the page could hold Google’s official reveal and details about Cubes whenever the feature rolls out.
The card cycled through examples of where users could “watch” and “shop” in Cubes. The former highlighted streaming services like Hulu, Max, and Amazon Prime, while the latter showcased shopping sites and restaurants like McDonald’s.
You can see the card at the top of the screenshots below:
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Further examination of the card’s background revealed what the Cubes UI will likely look like upon launch. Users may find a row of options along the top, such as “Watch, Listen, Read, Games, and Shop.” Imaging suggests “Listen” will throw users into podcast recommendations and even some info pulled from Spotify’s “New Music Friday.”
“Continue watching” and “continue playing” sections were spotted in their respective tabs, which should help users get back into what they were doing previously.
Aside from the slip-up, it’s unclear when Google plans to debut Cubes officially on the Play Store.
One thing this early preview of Cubes seems to suggest is that it may not remove users from the Play Store as originally theorized. Cubes was first spotted last November, and it seemed like a new app provided by the Play Store rather than an experience within the app store. While it looks like users may be able to decide which apps cooperate with Cubes for content recommendations, Google might also include a selection of “pre-selected” ones just as an introduction.
That early preview also seemingly teased the possibility of a “Social” and a more specific “Food” tab. For now, it’s not clear when Cubes will officially launch, but its appearance suggests it may not be long.