Companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and Google usually try to encourage users to shop within their ecosystem. There are many reasons for this, such as security, syncing purchases across devices, and of course getting a cut of all purchases made. Now it looks like Google is trying to make that notion more enticing through what appears to be a loyalty program.
Discovered by 9to5Google, it seems that a recent APK teardown of the Play Store revealed that Google is working on a loyalty program called “Play Points” along with a new logo for the program that you can see to the right. According to the strings discovered, it reads, “Earn points on everything you buy. Use points for special in-app items or Google Play credit.” Basically it works like how most loyalty programs work, where whenever you make a purchase, you gain points, and in turn those points can be used to make additional purchases.
Additional strings also revealed how much points could potentially stand to earn per purchase. “Earn 1 point per ¥100 on everything you buy. Use points for special in-app items or Google Play credit.” Given that ¥100 is almost the equivalent of $1, we can only assume that the conversion rate will be the same for the US, where $1 equals to 1 point, but this is just speculation on our part.
It is unclear as to how many points you will need to make any kind of redemption, but Google seems to be creating tiers for the different levels of points, where there will be five different levels that users can attain. However once again what these levels mean is unclear. No word on when Google plans on rolling out this new feature, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled.
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