Google Play, which was formerly known as the Android Market, is the official app store for Android smartphones and tablets.
It is basically a digital distribution service that is both operated and developed by Google.
The service allows users to browse and download applications developed with the Android SDK and published through Google.
The app store also serves as a digital media store that offers music, magazines, books, movies and TV programs. It also use to offer Google hardware devices but that ended when the company opened a separate online hardware area, Google Store, in 2015.