Google Play Games is the hub of all things mobile gaming on Android, keeping track of achievements or helping you find that next mobile gaming addition. Now, the app has a new tool to help you share your most epic gaming moments — with friends of your budding YouTube Gaming fan base.
When opening up a game through Google Play Games, you can click the new red record button, next to the old Play button, and it will pop into your game. The best part is it will also turn on your front-facing camera so you can give live commentary as you’re playing. The video recorded this way is either in 480p or 720p resolution, depending what kind of file size you want. Google will also give you a guesstimate about how much space your new video will take up, so you avoid the frustration of recording an epic 30-minute gaming session, only to have the video cutout halfway.
As for the video portion, it acts a lot like a Messenger chat head. The bubble, with your livestreaming mug front and center, can move around depending on what type of game you’re playing. Need to see your cards while playing Hearthstone? Just throw the video somewhere else that makes more sense. The video will interfere with those playing areas, but Google’s Duncan Curtis told Gizmodo that they’re working on an even better implementation of this feature in future releases.
Once your video is finished, you can choose to download the file or edit and upload to YouTube. Curtis mentions that there’s obvious synergy with Google Play Games and YouTube Gaming, YouTube’s new gaming hub, but says where YouTube is focused on gamers of all platforms, Google Play Games new recording utility is specifically designed just for Android.
The new recording ability is only for smartphones and tablets, so Android TV users will have to keep dreaming. The new app rolls out starting today in the US and UK but more countries are coming soon – Curtis says that all Google Play Games users should have the update by the end of the week.
So soon you can ditch those expensive setups, with microphones, wires, and other nonsense. All you’ll need is the smartphone in your pocket to document your epic mobile gaming exploits.