Introducing Google Essentials on Windows PCs

Over the last two years, we’ve been working to bring Google Play Games to more Windows PC gamers around the world.

Today, we’re introducing Google Essentials, a new app that makes it easier for you to discover and install many of our best Google services — including Google Play Games — when setting up a new PC. Google Essentials will be first available on all HP Windows consumer and gaming brands: Spectre, Envy, Pavilion, OMEN, Victus and HP Brand and soon to be featured on all OmniBook brands. You can open Google Essentials right from the start menu and easily switch between your phone and laptop.

For example, from Google Essentials or HP’s OMEN Gaming Hub, you’ll be able to access thousands of mobile and native PC games from Google Play Games, such as Clash of Clans and CookieRun: Tower of Adventures. Signing in to your Play Games account allows you to sync your in-game progress and reward benefits for certain titles, so you can pick things back up whether you’re on an Android device or PC.

You can also access Google Photos and Google Messages from Google Essentials, making it easier to enjoy your photo albums and respond to texts from friends and family. For those times when you need to get tasks done, Google Essentials includes shortcuts to our popular productivity tools — like Google Docs, Drive, and Calendar. Plus, eligible Google One subscribers can get access to a 2-month trial of Google One 100GB for their cloud storage needs, on us.

As always, we want to make sure you’re in control of your experience. You can uninstall any Google service — or Google Essentials altogether — at any time. We’ll expand Google Essentials to more laptops and desktops in the coming months, so stay tuned for more updates.