Google Play Gains Try Now Feature for Some Games

Google Play has a new feature that fans of games should really like. The tech is a new Try Now button that allows you to play some games without having to download and install them. The Try Now link is currently available only on a handful of games reports Ars Technica.

Try Now instant gameplay is available on Clash Royale, Words with Friends 2, Solitaire, Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire, Bubble Witch 3 Saga, and Mighty Battles. With those games when you hit the special landing page for Instant Play games you can play them all with no download to see if you like them.

The tech behind this new feature is called Instant Apps and it streams the app code to your device and runs it in an ephemeral sandbox. Developers have to specifically build in support for this tech using the Android SDK. That SDK breaks the app down into 10MB chunks that can stream to the user.

This allows the game to launch instantly, but since the app size is smaller for streaming you can lose some game features. If you hit a feature that needs the full app to function, users are prompted to download the full app. The video below gives an idea of what the new feature is like in action.