Google Play Movies Could Soon Offer Free Ad-Supported Movie Streaming

There are a bunch of movie streaming services out there for people to choose from to watch movies and TV shows on the go and at home. Google is gearing up to get into the streaming movie segment in a much bigger way with ad-supported free movies. The tip on the free movies comes from an APK teardown.

As it stands now, Google Play Movies & TV allows customers to purchase or rent individual movies and TV episodes. The APK teardown found code that reads, "Hundreds of movies, just a few a few ads." Other parts of the code says "Introducing" and "Watch free with ads." The code was found in version 4.18.37 of the Android application.

It's unclear how much of the Google library might be available to watch at no cost with ads. The library would need at least 200 ad-supported movies to make the "hundreds" statement realistic. Offering free movies could make Google Play Movies & TV a viable alternative to some of the other streaming services out there. With people around the world stuck indoors thanks to the coronavirus, free movies would be a welcome distraction for many. As with any feature gleaned from unreleased code, there is no guarantee this feature will launch. However, it's highly likely that it will.

In other Google news, a recent report by RiskIQ labeled Google Play is the second most dangerous place to download apps in terms of the number of malicious apps that were hosted there in 2019. RiskIQ expects the malware threat on Google Play to grow in 2020.