Google Play Store starts selling… Samsung Galaxy phones

In a strange and unexpected turn of events, the Google Play Store has started selling Samsung Galaxy devices.

While the Play Store is Google’s official store for downloading apps and games, it does actually sell devices too. It’s likely that not many people know this as Google has this section hidden away.

You have to load up the Play Store on your phone, click your profile picture in the corner, scroll down and select ‘Shop devices’. Here, as you might expect, you can browse Google’s latest own-brand wares such as the Pixel 11, Pixel Watch 5 and Fitbit Air.

However, YouTuber Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) has pointed out you can now buy Samsung Galaxy devices from here. His screenshot of the store shows the Galaxy S26 at the top with the caption “Capture every detail with pro-grade precision”.

Brownlee said ‘phones’ plural, so there may be others too. On the UK version of the Play Store, there are no Galaxy devices at the time of publishing and users are reporting the same for markets like India and South Africa. There are also no Samsung or other brand mobile devices on the official webstore for the US or UK.

It’s a curious move, though I doubt Google gets many sales via this platform, especially as the S26 is top of the list, above Pixel phones. It doesn’t appear to be a mistake, so the two firms must have made some kind of agreement.

While users in the US have been able to buy a range of phones from the Google Fi app (the firm’s virtual network operator) for a long time, it will be interesting to see if more devices appear on the Play Store, such as the upcoming Galaxy S27 and if Google expands the official web store in a similar way.