The company is revamping the Play Store for the AI era with changes to publishing, recommendations and more.
As part of a collection of updates to the Play Store, Google has announced that it will allow anyone who vibe codes an Android app to distribute it through the Play Store with just a Google account. The company's app store has changed a lot in the last few years, both in the wake of Google's efforts to inject AI into everything and legal pressure the company has faced to open the Play Store to competitors. But this change could prove to be one of the biggest.
Users have been able to sideload APKs of Android apps to their phones or tablets for a while, with Google making the process more complex in the last year. This new publishing process will make things easier. Rolling out to users in the US and other select markets who are 18 years and up, Google will let you upload a vibe-coded Android app from Google AI Studio without a paid developer account. For those who aren't familiar, Google's AI Studio is capable of generating apps with just a written prompt to Gemini, and you can adjust your results with more prompts or directly editing the generated code yourself.
Your app will only be available on your own devices to start (including tablets and computers with access to the Play Store) in a new "personal library" section, but Google eventually plans to let you securely share your vibe-coded apps with friends and family, too.
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