Who won at the annual Google Play Awards? 

The annual Google Play Awards took place on Monday with the marketplace picking its best of 2018’s apps. For the first time, Google Play also opened up voting to users, with a new Consumer Choice awards. So, who won what? Read on for our round up of the best apps and games, as chosen by Google Play, based on attributes such as design, purpose and the overall user experience.

The User’s Choice award winners

There were two different categories for the first ever User’s Choice gong; best app and best game.

The Best App award winner , as voted for by Google Play users, was Reddit. Described as ‘powered by the people’, this app is split into different communities and open to all – users post everything from memes to news and funny videos for the community to discuss and vote on. Reddit posts often go viral and are quoted frequently in newspaper and magazine articles.

The User’s Choice Best Game of 2018 was Pubg Mobile. The game has over 8 million reviews on Play and a 4.5 star rating. The game is based on a battleground, with 100 players parachuting onto an island for a winner-takes-all battle.

Best App

Google Play’s Best App of the year was Drops, an education app that helps users to learn 31 new languages. With over 70,000 user reviews, Google Play says it was the app that it was returned to and shared with friends most often. The app employs image-based exercises called drops to help users master one of dozens of languages and local dialects.

Most Entertaining Apps

This year’s Most Entertaining App award winners include VIMAGE, a live photo editor and a cinemagraph animator. The app helps users turn their images into live photos, add ultra-realistic moving elements and create cinemagraphs in seconds. No Draw – Colour My Numbers was also a winner thanks to its library of images, NeverThink: Handpicked Videos which is the self-proclaimed TV of the Internet was also a Google Play Best Of pick, as was new social media app TikTok and the ScoutFM podcast.

Best Self-Improvement Apps

The learn to code app, Mimo was one of the winners of the Best Self Improvement App award thanks to its simple interface, colourful design and accessible approach to the often tricky business of learning how to write code. Drops won in this category too, as did 10% Happier: Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics, the personal training app, KeepTrainer and Masterclass, which helps users learn something new with world-famous names such as Gordon Ramsey and James Paterson.

Best Daily Helpers

Included in the Best Daily Helpers Best Of honour roll was the easy graphic design app, Canva, the recipe app Tasty, Otter voice notes, CBT app Woebot and Notion, for notes, tasks and wikis.