More Google Play Store Weirdness
I’m a frequent user of Google’s “Chrome to Phone” extension (Google Chrome to Phone) … a useful tool that pushes the page you are currently browsing in Chrome Browser on the desktop, to your android device.
Today, I sent a few pages, and noticed that they hadn’t appeared on my Note 3. Ah, silly me … I hadn’t installed the Google Chrome to Phone app, so the notifications were probably going to my old Note 1.
So I browsed to Google’s Play Store on my desktop, found the app page (http://goo.gl/ozbxB) and was about to do a remote install to my phone (why spend the extra energy to pick up the phone when my fingers are already on my desktop keyboard) — but play store said it was already “Installed”. Ah, maybe it means it’s already installed in my Note 1– strangely there doesn’t seem to be a feature to initiate another install to my Note 3.
So … I pick up the Note 3, opened the Play Store app, and search for “Chrome to Phone” … and get zero results. Hmm. On a hunch I tried doing a Google Search for “Chrome to Phone”, and it appears as the first hit, with a “Free” button next to it. Tapping “Free” brings up the Google Play store again … but this time with the Chrome to Phone app!
So the next time you’re searching for an app and can’t find it in the Play Store, try doing a Google Search!
This also seems to get around region restrictions in the Play Store for certain apps like Netflix (though even if you can install the Netflix app, it will not stream video unless you have a US IP address).
This post was originally published publicly on Google+ at 2013-09-28 02:12:30+0800
