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Google Play Awards: Android’s best apps and games revealed

The Google Play Store offers somewhere in the region of 2 million apps, which makes it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.

To make it easier to celebrate the best of Play Store, Google has announced the Google Play Awards, which will showcase five nominees across 10 award categories.

The nominees have been selected by a “panel of experts” on the Google Play team, using criteria like app quality, innovation, and a recent launch or major update.

The winners from each category will be announced the the Google I/O developer conference next month.

“Google Play has sent tremendous growth over the past year, reaching more than one billion Android users across 190 countries,” says Purnima Kochikar, Director of Apps and Games Business Development for Google Play.

Kochikar continues: “As a way to recognise our incredible developer community and highlight some of the best apps and games, we’re kicking off our first-ever Google Play Awards.”

Related: Best Android Apps 2016

Without further ado, here are the nominees:

Standout Startup

Dubsmash
Hopper
Musical.ly
Robinhood
Vrse

Standout Indie

Alphabear
Alto’s Adventure
Fast like a Fox
Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector
Prune

Best Families App

Card Wars – Adventure Time
LEGO Jurassic World
My Very Hungry Caterpillar
Thinkrolls 2
Toca Nature

Best Use of Material Design

Bring!
Robinhood
The Fabluous
Todoist
Vevo

Best Use of Google Play Game Services

Sea Battle 2
Table Tennis Touch
Tapventures
TowerMadness 2
Zombie Highway 2

Related: Best Android Smartphones 2016

Early Adopter

Glide
Mechanic Escape
Minecraft: Story Mode
World Around Me
Zumper

Go Global

Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle
Freeletics Bodyweight
Memrise
Musixmatch
Pokemon Shuffle Mobile

Most Innovative

Fast like a Fox
NYT VR
SmartNews
The Fabulous
This War of Mine

Best App

BuzzFeed News
Colorfy
Houzz
TuneIn Radio
Yummly

Best Game

Alphabear
Clash of Kings
Clash Royale
MARVEL Future Fight
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes

TrustedReviews App of the Week – BBC iPlayer Kids:

Any personal favourites you think were missed out? Let us know your top Android apps in the comments below.

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