Google Play's new logo is official for its not-actually-10th birthday 

Google Play's new logo, which the astute may have already spotted in certain parts of the Play Store and elsewhere, is now official and part of Google Play's "tenth" birthday. To mark the not-actually-accurate occasion, Google is giving 10x back on Play Points for purchases starting today.

For a short trip down memory lane, Google Play debuted in March of 2012 — that means it's not exactly the store's birthday right now, but I suppose the distinction between March and July is close enough for Google. At the time, Google play was a rebranding of the Android Market while consolidating Google's other media retail efforts, like Google Books, Google Music, and Google Movies, into a single storefront and platform, together with new "Play" branding on those other media-specific apps.

Over the years, most of those other apps have disappeared. Play Music is long gone, Play Movies became Google TV (not that Google TV), and only Google Play Books hangs on, vestigial as it is for most of us. Given how many parts of "Play" had disappeared, I've called in the past for the branding to be retired in favor of something new. But on this not-actual birthday, Google has elected to double down, giving Google Play and the Play Store a new logo.

The adjusted wordmark, logo, and colors used.

As in the case of the Chrome logo rebranding, the new Google Play logo is flatter, lacking the gradients that previously implied other dimensions of shaping, and it has slightly more vibrant and saturated colors. The shapes for the different parts of the logo have also been changed noticeably, eating away at the blue to provide a little more space for the other colors.

I'd argue the new logo looks a lot more "balanced" both in terms of color and the density of detail, and the new, more saturated colors better match Google's other new logos.

The old logo (left) compared to the new one (right).

We're told that the details (particularly the start date) of the not-quite-birthday promo will vary from country to country, and you can find out more on the Play Store's Play Points page. A few weeks ago, a new way to redeem Play Points for hardware on the Google Store was also spotted. It's not clear if this is related in any way to that, but we've reached out to Google to see if there is a connection.

( Details and picture courtesy from Source, the content is auto-generated from RSS feed.)

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