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Google unveils the official Play Awards nominees
July 17, 2025
The Google Play Awards are coming atGoogle I/Oon May 19, but today Google released the nominees for each category. With ten categories and five nominees per category, what we’re looking at here is a Who’s Who among Android apps, so even if you’re not super interested in the Play Awards, you should at least take a look at this list and consider giving some of these apps and games a whirl.
The first category will go to aStandout Startup. This award is reserved for developers who are new to the scene but who have nonetheless achieved immediate growth. Contenders for this category areDubsmash,Hopper,Musical.ly,Robinhood, andVrse.
Standout Indieis a similar category, but it applies to games rather than apps in general. This award, which focuses on artistic design and innovative gameplay, will go toAlphabear,Alto’s Adventure,Fast like a Fox,Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector, orPrune.
Next up is theBest Families App, which aims to award apps or games that encourage younger users to be creative. Nominees areCard Wars – Adventure Time,LEGO Jurassic World,My Very Hungry Caterpillar,Thinkrolls2, andToca Nature.
On the aesthetics side of things, we’ve got theBest Use of Material Designaward, which will go to eitherBring!,Robinhood,The Fabulous,Todoist, orVevo.
TheBest Use of Google Play Game Servicesaward will go to a game that make clever use of GPGS, and the names on the list areSea Battle2,Table Tennis Touch,Tapventures,TowerMadness2, andZombie Highway 2.
TheEarly AdopterAward praises apps which take advantage of emerging technology, so the apps on this list areGlide,Mechanic Escape,Minecraft: Story Mode,World Around Me, andZumper.
Go Globalis a category that awards apps which have achieved flexibility and popularity across a wide variety of regions. The nominees for this category areDragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle,Freeletics Bodyweight,Memrise,Musixmatch, andPokemon Shuffle Mobile.
Most Innovativerewards just what you think it would, and contending for the prize areFast like a Fox,NYT VR,SmartNews,The Fabulous, andThis War of Mine.
Finally, we get to the biggest awards of all.Best Appis a toss up betweenBuzzFeed News,Colorfy,Houzz,TuneIn Radio, andYummly, andBest Gamewill come down toAlphabear,Clash of Kings,Clash Royale,MARVEL Future Fight, orStar Wars: Galaxy of Heroes.
The ceremony will livestream on May 19th at 7pm PDT, so stay tuned to see who wins this battle of app titans. Let us know what you think about Google’s picks in the comments. Did any of your favorites get overlooked this year?
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