Google Play Awards: Like the Oscars, but without the Red Carpet [Results]

The first ever Google Play Awards is here, the nominees were announced and there are a bunch of amazing apps. Let’s see who came out on top.

Standout Startups Nominees

With new apps coming out all the time, only a few can really stand out. In this category, the nominees couldn’t be any more different from each other. From finance (Robinhood), Virtual Reality (VRSE), saving money on airfare (Hopper), making short videos (Musical.ly), and just plain fun (Dubsmash), this is a diverse area. Conventional wisdom would say the winner would be Robinhood or Dubsmash. So who won?

Winner: Hopper

Standout Indie Nominees

This category is made up of smaller name game developers that made a big splash. Alphabear and Alto’s Adventure are some of the well known. Fast like a Fox and Neko Atsume follow close behind, with Prune being the least downloaded. All are great but only one took the crown.

Winner: Alphabear

Best Families App Nominees

There are many games in the Play Store, but not all are the same or even family friendly. Card Wars:Adventure Time brings the card style of play while Lego Jurassic World continues the classic Lego Franchise. My Very Hungry Caterpillar, Thinkrolls 2, and Toca Nature all shoot for an even younger demographic.

Winner: Thinkrolls 2

Best Use of Material Design Nominees

The last couple years has been all about Material Design. Many have adopted it but Bring!, Robinhood, The Fabulous, Todoist, and Vevo have done the best when it comes to implementing it while being completely different apps. Only one can be the most material of them all.

Winner: Robinhood

Best Use of Google Play Services Nominees

When it comes to Google Play Services, games seem to dominate here. Sea Battle 2, Table Tennis Touch, and Tower Madness 2 all have an old school familiar, while Tapventures  and Zombie Highway 2 are very different styles. The one thing they all have in common is they knew what they were doing when it comes to Play Services.

Winner: Table Tennis Touch

Early Adopters Nominees

Early Adopters is another diverse category of apps. Glide handles your video chat needs while Mechanic Escape and Minecraft Story Mode are the games of the nominees. World around me helps you discover, well, the world around you and Zumper helps you find that perfect apartment.

Winner: World around me

Go Global Nominees

Go Global recognizes apps that have great appeal across all cultural aspects. Games including Dragonball Z Dorrkan Battle and Pokemon Shuffle Mobile definitely meet that criteria. Other apps like Musixmatch and Memrise ( a language learning app) reach out to all cultures as well. Freelitics Bodyweight covers the fitness portion of the category.

Winner: Pokemon Shuffle Mobile

Most Innovative Nominees

All the nominees here are more than deserving of the title. Maybe even for best app. Fast like a Fox (up for two awards) and This War of Mine both bring amazing game experience. The Fabulous (another two awards nominee) brings motivation to another level while SmartNews and NYT VR make news fun and easier to consume.

Winner: NYT VR

Best App Nominees

This is the one of the big two categories of the night. Leading the pack Colorfy, Tunein Radio, and Buzzfeed News all representing then entertainment value, while Yummy and Houzz handle the productivity aspect of the category. All these apps have value a huge value or they wouldn’t be here. This one is a tough one.

Winner: Houzz

Best Game Nominees

This is the big one, Best Game. Alphabear, the puzzle game, Clash of Kings, the civilization builder, Clash Royale, the most anticipated game, and Marvel Future Fight and Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, which represent the action style games.  All these games are really good and deserve awards, but only one can take it home.

Winner: Clash Royale

What do you think about nominees and winners? Did the Google Play awards go like you expected?