- Google Play hosted its inaugural Google Play awards for Android apps.
- Houzz, an online home design company, snagged the "Best App" award for its clean design, functionality and virtual reality feature called "View In My Home."
Houzz, a renovation and redecorating idea platform, snagged “Best App” at Google’s inaugural Google Play awards on May 19. The design company beat out Buzzfeed News, Colorfy, TuneIn Radio and Yummly for the top spot.
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According to Google Play’s Director of Apps and Games Business Development, Purnima Kochikar, Google decided to start recognizing developers in celebration of reaching over the 1 billion mark of Android users.
“Google Play has seen tremendous growth over the past year, reaching more than 1 billion Android users across 190 countries,” said Kochikar on the Android Developers Blog. “As a way to recognize our incredible developer community and highlight some of the best apps and games, we’re kicking off our first-ever Google Play Awards.”
Nominees in “Best App” category were chosen based on a number of factors that included beautiful design, intuitive user experience and high user appeal, quality and ratings.
Screenshots of Houzz’s “View In My Room” feature.
Houzz’s app allows users to view and save various interior and exterior home designs, connect with home improvement professionals, buy design items directly from the app, and users can even use the “View In My Room” feature to see how certain items will look in their room before purchasing.
Houzz says the “View In My Room” and “Sketch” features along with a perfect execution of simple features, such as smooth scrolling and fast image loading, are what set them apart from the pack.
“This focus has made mobile very important to our business, with over half of our users engaging with our platform via our apps. Houzz users flip through more than one billion photos on our apps every month,” said Houzz in a press release.
