Where the app excels is in its filter system, letting you select movie/TV, genre, sub-genre, whether you want to rent or own the movie, and right down to what decade the film was made. That minor grievance aside, the app feels fast and does contain most of the same functionality as the web version. Where the web storefront gives you the means to search by genre immediately, you have to scroll down past four headings of movies before given the options to choose. Although it lets you make purchases inside the app, it feels slightly unpolished.
Just like the Chrome extension, the Chromebook app looks and feels like a minimalist version of the web page. You can navigate through the app by using the three tabs, located at the bottom of the screen: home, library, and wishlist. To access the app, click the Launcher button, then type in “Movies” to the search bar and click “Play Movies.” We’ll be using the Play Store app in this example as the other two methods are identical on other devices.
If you’re using a Chromebook, you can access Google Play Movies & TV in three ways: head to the web store, install the Chrome app or use the Google Play Movies & TV Android app, which comes pre-installed if your Chromebook has the Play Store enabled.
How to Use Play Movies Android App for Chromebook Other than that, it serves as a way to view trailers for movies, and a way to watch your purchases without having to navigate to the Play Movies web page. The only real difference is, if you want to purchase anything, you have to click the “Shop” button at the top of the app, which brings you back to the web version of Play Movies. The interface for the app is similar to the web version but is limited to a few very basic features, like searching and browsing minimal titles, watching trailers, and watching your movies or TV shows from your library. To open the app from your Chromebook desktop, click on the launcher icon, start typing “Movies,” then look for the icon with the grey Chrome logo in the lower right corner. Once the extension installs, click “Launch App.” On the popup, review the permission, then click “Add app” to give it access to Chrome. To install the Chrome app for Play Movies & TV, head on over to the Chrome web store for Play Movies & TV and click on “Add to Chrome.”
It’s also worth noting that the app doesn’t support offline playback on anything other than Chromebooks. Although you can still download Play Movies for Chrome on any platform directly from the web store link, Google has since dropped support for any device that isn’t a Chromebook. Once an extension for Google Chrome that has now turned into a Chrome App for Chrome OS, the Google Play Movies app acts essentially as a “lite” version of the site.
This makes it easy to keep track of things you want to buy or rent. Inside is a list of all the titles you want to see, but haven’t purchased yet.
To access your wishlist, click on “My Wishlist,” located on the left sidebar.