Navigating the Google Play Store

If you're an Android user, chances are you've had to suffer from the headache of not being able to find the right apps on the Play Store. Here are some tips to effectively find your way around Google's daunting app marketplace. 

1.    DO NOT USE KEYWORDS ALL THE TIME: There's a plethora of ways of finding the app you want/need barring the usage of keywords. For example, instead of writing "racing game" on the search panel, go to Categories, then Games, and then Racing. This will make sure the app page shows all games categorised as part of the racing genre. If "racing game" was written in the search panel, the results would only comprise of games containing the words "racing game". 

2.    USE PLAYBOARD: An ever reliable way of discovering new, cool apps, Playboard is an app which shows you the best of Playstore in a concise and coherent manner. There are many channels to explore such as "Geek only apps" or "Best of the best" or "Form+Function" etc. Using these channels will easily narrow down your search pool which will lead to more efficient app-hunting.

3.    PICK FROM THE CREAM OF THE CROP: No doubt you've seen the "Editor's Choice" panel on the Play Store. The select apps which are present on this page are of the highest quality and you will have no problem finding out a well-crafted app from here.

KEEP USING THE PLAY STORE: Now this one's pretty much a no-brainer but honestly, if you keep browsing the Play Store and installing apps long enough (preferably following the tips stated above), the store will automatically find out your most used apps and then make recommendations so that you may find apps which are similar or have the same design etc. These recommendations do not usually show up in the "top paid or free" lists but I've found them to be heaps better than the top lists.