Wait… there’s an official Android app, straight from Google, that offers you credit in their very own Google Play Store?
Why yes! They call it Google Opinion Rewards. The app offers short surveys based on your recent search and location history.
I do not have an affiliate relationship with Google and I receive no incentive for linking to or reviewing this app.
Payout to Time Ratio
In just under one year, I have earned $34.70 by taking very short surveys in the Google Opinion Rewards app for Android.
Each survey takes between 30 seconds to one minute to complete and I have completed 105 surveys so far.
Lets do a quick break down of this:
$35 / 105 surveys = $0.33 per survey
If each survey takes 30 seconds:
$0.33 * 120 surveys in an hour = $39.60 an hour
If each survey takes 45 seconds:
$0.33 * 90 surveys in an hour = $29.70 an hour
If each survey takes one minute:
$0.33 * 60 surveys in an hour = $19.80 per hour
Even if I spent about a minute on each survey, I’ve only spent 1 hour and 45 minutes on this. Okay, I’m gonna say it, I’m overthinking this. Any way you slice it, these are 3-5 question surveys that take very little time.
How can you use these Credits
You can use these credits for anything you purchase through the Google Play Store: apps, music, movies, tv-shows, and ebooks. These credits also work for in-app purchases to remove ads from apps.
I was able to get the $10 Starting Strength app for absolutely nothin’ while getting all the benefits the app offers. I’ve also used these credits to purchase music albums and to buy the pro versions of applications to support the developers of apps I use daily.
The App Itself
Being a Google app, this app is fairly stable. Simple, clean, and easy to use, this app really doesn’t have much to get confused by or mess up.
I have had two or three times where the app fails to send my response or encounters an error. Yet the survey has always been available via the main screen of the app after reopening the app.
You Mileage May Vary
I am very excited about the $34 I have received throughout the last year. My wife is even more excited that she has earned the same amount, and in two less months than me. Granted, she has completed 134 surveys as she is out and about and in more stores than I am thanks to her job. She has received less compensation for more surveys. I also have a coworker who has made twice what I have made, in only one more month of being on the platform.
Privacy Concerns
The highest paying surveys require you to take a picture of your receipt from a store you visited or leave a public-facing review on Google Maps. Both of these survey types make your real world information visible to other people. These Google Maps surveys will appear with the name you signed up with for your Google account with. They will also be visible to anyone who views your Google Maps profile or the reviews of the place you visited. In the case of the receipt, your receipt will most likely be viewed by a human. What does Google do with your receipt data? That’s a great question, one for which we don’t have an answer for. My assumption, is that Google wants to know how you paid for your items at the store as they seek to expand their Google Pay app and acceptance of this payment method in brick and mortar stores. However, one could argue that this information is being given to advertisers to further fill out their profile of you by bridging the gap of your physical purchases with those recorded by Google already.
Location Data
Each survey you take is either based on the physical stores you have visited or your recent Google search history. This means that you will be further commenting on the data that Google is collecting on you. This can make you more vulnerable and can also help to build a larger profile of your behavior. Both of which are not great when it comes to the increases in SPAM and phishing attacks.
Choose your own adventure privacy
As with any privacy matter, you have to gauge what you are comfortable with. Every action we take has inherent risk and everyone has their own risk levels. There are generally agreed upon actions that most people see as extremely risky with low reward. Like closing your eyes while crossing an intersection…. not a move many will condone. Then there is eating ice cream. We all know its probably not very good for us, but the taste is sooooo worth it. But we remember the risks involved and try not to go back for a third helping…. because admit it, you already snuck a second helping.
I still use Google products and haven’t been successfully persuaded not to. In a perfect world I probably wouldn’t use Google, but in a perfect world I also wouldn’t use a smartphone or laptop either. I believe the value I get from using Google products outweighs any risk it introduces to my family. Yes, there are nightmare scenarios where Google could leak our information or do something evil. I do not believe that Google Opinion rewards opens us up to additional risk. At least no more than using Google’s other products. We are already leave reviews on Google Maps. We already store most of our life in their servers between Gmail, Keep, Maps, Calendar, and Photos. You could say this app is only another drop in the bucket. If you’re opposed to Google services, that sounds like a horrible argument. Yet, if you don’t have reservations to trusting Google, you’re good to go.
If you are comfortable with all of this, head on over to Google Opinion Rewards in the Play Store to download today. Feel free to comment below on why you trust Google, or why you choose to forgo a few free dollars.