Google Takes Cue From Amazon, Offers ‘Free App Of The Week’ On Google Play

by Joshua Gulick — Monday, June 15, 2015, 11:30 AM EDT

At first glance, Google’s debut app for its newly-launched “free app of the week” promotion is a bit of a head-scratcher. Instead of offering a popular utility or game to pull customers from the Amazon App Store, Google’s Play Store is handing out an app for kids. This week, you can save your $2.99 and download Daniel Tiger Grr-ific Feelings by PBS Kids free for your Android device.

There is a new free app in the Family section of the Play Store

Amazon has been running free app promotions for quite a while, so it’s not surprising that Google is providing a little competition. Weirdly though, Google is burying its free app in a family fun section, whereas Amazon makes its free apps easy to find. Unless you follow a direct link to the Daniel Tiger Grr-ific Feelings app, you’ll need to follow a fairly convoluted path to find it. Click the New Family Fun link on the Google Play main page, then click the Free App of the Week banner. The app’s information and Install button then (finally) appear.

Parents are bound to be happy with a free app for their kids – particularly an app from PBS Kids – but for other users, Amazon is still the place to go for app promotions. The company offers a free app of the day and recently offered a free app bonanza: 34 apps and games to Android device users. It will be interesting to see whether Google keeps the App of the Week program in its Family section or expands it to other areas of Google Play.

Tags: Amazon, Google, Apps, (NASDAQ:AMZN), (nasdaq:goog)

Joshua Gulick

Josh cut his teeth (and hands) on his first PC upgrade in 2000 and was instantly hooked on all things tech. He took a degree in English and tech writing with him to Computer Power User Magazine and spent years reviewing high-end workstations and gaming systems, processors, motherboards, memory and video cards. His enthusiasm for PC hardware also made him a natural fit for covering the burgeoning modding community, and he wrote CPU’s “Mad Reader Mod” cover stories from the series’ inception until becoming the publication editor for Smart Computing Magazine. A few years ago, he returned to his first love, reviewing smoking-hot PCs and components, for HotHardware. When he’s not agonizing over benchmark scores, Josh is either running (very slowly) or spending time with family.

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