Google Play dropped its 2024 picks, celebrating the best in apps, games, books, and multi-device options. Partiful won Best App for reinventing event planning, with its easy-to-use "Party Genie" tool for quick invite creation.

Live threat detection was one of the standouts when Android 15 was trailed earlier this year. Using on-device AI, the idea is that users will be warned in real time if an app is exhibiting potentially malicious behavior, before it’s flagged across the board by Play Protect.

This active monitoring lets Google Play Protect identify potentially harmful apps that may attempt to conceal malicious behavior or remain inactive for a period before engaging in suspicious activity. The real-time alerts tell users immediately if a harmful app or scam call is detected and let them take action to protect their data and devices.

With 2024 winding down soon, Google Play today named the best Android apps and games of the year. These lists are

Google can’t really have it both ways—either Play Protect is critical or it isn’t. It’s the default response from Google when new malware strikes, telling users to make sure it’s enabled. That protection falls away if it’s seen as the norm to disable it when an app can’t get through. How then does a user know what is dangerous and what isn’t.

Google named Partiful the single best app of the year. This app is a tool for creating and managing events — everything from a surprise birthday party to a baby shower for your bestie. It makes it insanely easy to create events,