Tag Archives: android developers

The future of Android App Bundles is here

Posted by Dom Elliott, Product Manager at Google Play

Android App Bundles logo

Since we launched the Android App Bundle in May 2018, we’ve seen our developer community embrace this new standard to benefit from streamlined releases and advanced distribution features. There are now over 1 million apps using app bundles in production, including the majority of the top 1,000 apps and games on Google Play such as Adobe, Duolingo, Gameloft, Netflix, redBus, Riafy, and Twitter.

To bring these benefits to more users and focus on modern Android distribution that benefits all developers, Google Play will start requiring new apps to be published with the Android App Bundle starting August 2021. This will replace the APK as the standard publishing format.

Modern Android distribution

If you haven’t made the switch to app bundles yet, here are some of the benefits you’re missing:

  • Android App Bundle: Google Play uses the app bundle to generate and optimize APKs for distribution for different device configurations and languages. This makes your app smaller (on average, 15% smaller than a universal APK) and faster to download, which can lead to more installs and fewer uninstalls.
  • Play App Signing: Play App Signing, which is required for app bundles, protects your app signing key from loss by using Google’s secure infrastructure and offers the option of upgrading to a new, cryptographically stronger app signing key.
  • Play Feature Delivery: Used by more than 10% of the top apps using app bundles, Play Feature Delivery gives you the ability to customize what feature modules are delivered to which device and when, with install-time, conditional, and on-demand delivery modes.
  • Play Asset Delivery: Reduces user waiting time by dynamically delivering large assets while cutting delivery costs. Games using Play Asset Delivery can use texture compression format targeting, so your users only get the assets suitable for their device, with no wasted space or bandwidth.
  • Future improvements: Soon, Play App Signing will start rolling out APK Signature Scheme v4 to select apps making it possible for them to optionally access upcoming performance features available on newer devices. Tune into the Google for Games Developer Summit on July 12 to find out more.

Recap of what’s changing starting August 2021

TYPE OF RELEASE

REPLACED

REQUIRED AUG 2021

New apps 

on Google Play

APK

Android App Bundle (AAB)

Expansion files (OBBs)

Play Asset Delivery or 

Play Feature Delivery

Updates to existing apps

No change

New instant experiences

Instant app ZIP

Instant-enabled Android App Bundle (AAB)

Updates to instant experiences

As a reminder, the app bundle requirement applies to new apps. Existing apps are currently exempt, as are private apps being published to managed Google Play users. Thanks to the thousands of developers who have been a part of the app bundle journey. We look forward to bringing you more improvements and features soon.

- - -

Answers to some Android App Bundle FAQs

How much work is required to use an app bundle vs an APK?

For most apps, very little work is required to build an AAB instead of an APK. It’s mostly a matter of choosing a different option at build time and then testing as normal. The app bundle is an open source format supported by major build tools such as Android Studio, Gradle, Bazel, Buck, Cocos Creator, Unity, Unreal Engine, and other engines. Play Core Native and Play Core Java & Kotlin SDKs also make it easy to start using optional, advanced app bundle features, whatever your preferred coding environment.

Why aren't expansion files (OBBs) supported with app bundles? Why should games use Play Asset Delivery?

APKs require separate files (OBBs) to serve additional resources to users. However, because OBBs are not signed and are stored in the app’s external storage, they’re not very secure. With Play Asset Delivery (PAD), games larger than 150MB can replace OBBs by publishing the entire game as a single app bundle on the Play Store. Beyond offering a smoother publishing process and flexible delivery modes, PAD carries benefits over the legacy expansion files: its delta patching of assets is optimized for large apps meaning updates require dramatically less device storage than OBBs. As a result, fast-follow drives higher install rate and store conversion rate. Finally, with ASTC now supported on ~80% of devices, texture compression format targeting lets you serve ASTC to devices that support it. You can target the widest range of Android devices while making efficient use of the available hardware and device storage.

If I use app bundles, can I still publish through multiple distribution channels/app stores?

Yes, there are multiple ways to achieve this. You can either use the same app signing key everywhere or use unique app signing keys for different channels, including a unique app signing key for Google Play. You can either build and sign artifacts for all distribution channels locally or you can download distribution APKs from Google Play for use on other channels. Distribution APKs downloaded from Google Play, either via the app bundle explorer in Play Console or via the Play Developer API, are signed with the same key used by Play App Signing.

I’m launching a new app. Can I decide what my app signing key is?

Yes, this option is available in the Play Console. When creating a new app, you can choose one of the options to provide the app signing key that Google uses. This allows you to keep a copy of your app signing key locally, for example to generate signed versions for distribution through other channels using the same key as the Play version. Soon, the Play Console will make releasing an app for the first time a little easier by giving you the ability to change your app signing key if you make a mistake, as long as you do it before you publish to an open track the first time.

When distributing apps on Google Play, how do I ensure my app is delivered to users the way I intend?

At any time, you can download and inspect artifacts from the Play Store, from the app bundle explorer in the Play Console, and via the Play Developer API to verify your app. In addition, code transparency for app bundles is a new, optional feature that can be used to inspect that code running on a device matches the code that was originally built and signed by the developer.

I have an app published on Google Play already. Can I start using Play App Signing without providing a copy of my existing app signing key?

To use Play App Signing today you have to provide a copy of your existing app signing key because Google Play needs a copy of it to sign and deliver updates to your existing users. This suits most developers, over 1M apps are using Play App Signing in production. Soon, we will add an additional option for existing apps to opt in to Play App Signing by performing a key upgrade. Choosing this option means Play App Signing can use a new, unique key for all new installs and their updates. However, for this to work, when you upload an app bundle, you also need to upload a legacy APK signed with your old key so that Google Play can continue to deliver updates to your existing users.

Can I ever change my app signing key?

Yes, some apps can request an app signing key upgrade for new installs in Play Console. Google Play will use your new key to sign new installs and app updates while using your legacy app signing key to sign updates for users who installed your app before the key upgrade. Soon, Play App Signing key upgrade will also add support for APK Signature Scheme v3 key rotation. This will make key upgrade a possible option for more apps and help apps signed with upgraded keys reach more users.

Play Dev ID requirements + 2-Step Verification

Posted by Luke Jefferson, Product Manager at Google Play & Raz Lev, Product Manager at Google Play Trust and Safety

Over the past few years, Google Play has seen tremendous growth. Android apps and games have become a critical part of people’s lives, built by developers of all sizes from all over the world, whether professionally or just for fun.

To keep Google Play safe and secure and to better serve our developer community, we are introducing two new security measures: additional identification requirements and 2-Step Verification. These measures will help strengthen your account security and will help us better understand your needs.

Developer identification requirements

Today, when you create a new Google Play developer account, we ask you for an email address and a phone number.

With this update, account owners of developer accounts will also be asked to provide:

  • Your account type — whether it’s personal or belongs to an organization
  • A contact name
  • Your physical address
  • Verification of your email address and phone number

Your contact information allows us to share important information and updates about your app. It also helps us make sure that every account is created by a real person with real contact details, which helps us keep the Play Store safe for all users.

This information will not be public-facing and is just to help us confirm your identity and communicate.


2-Step Verification

In addition to learning more about our developer community, we’re also taking steps to improve security and keep your accounts safer by mandating that users of Google Play Console sign in using Google’s 2-Step Verification. 2-Step Verification is an additional safeguard to help protect your account, your app, and your users.

Learn more about 2-Step Verification and how to set it up for your own account.

Play ID requirments and 2 step verification image


Timelines

Starting today, developer account owners will be able to declare their account type and verify their contact details. For now, declaring an account type is optional, but it will be required for any account owners who want to update their contact details.

In August, all new developer accounts will need to specify their account type and verify their contact information at sign-up. We will also make 2-Step Verification a requirement for the owners of new developer accounts.

Later this year, all existing developer account owners will be required to declare their account type, provide the required information, and verify their contact details. We will also require developers to sign in using 2-Step Verification.


Best practices

In addition to these changes, we’d like to remind you of some best practices to help keep your account in good health and make sure you don’t miss important information.

  • Keep your contact information active and up to date. We may occasionally check if your account is active by emailing or calling the account owner using the details provided, so it is important that they are accurate.
  • Consider using a contact email address different to the one that you use to create your Google account, especially if your developer account will have multiple users or is for an organization or business. You might want to consider setting up a dedicated shared inbox for this purpose, so that the right set of people within your team or organization can access these important messages. We encourage you to use an email address from your own domain if you have one.
  • The contact email address for an organization or business account should not be a generic or personal email address. Make sure to use an email address associated with your organization.

Grow your indie game with help from Google Play

Posted by Patricia Correa, Director, Global Developer Marketing

Indie Games Accelerator graphic

At Google Play we’re committed to helping all developers thrive, whether these are large multinational companies or small startups and indie game studios. They are all critical to providing the services and experiences that people around the world look for on their Android devices. The indie game developer community, in particular, constantly pushes the boundaries with their creativity and passion, and bring unique and diverse content to players everywhere.

To continue supporting indies, today we’re opening submissions for two of our annual developer programs - the Indie Games Accelerator and the Indie Games Festival. These programs are designed to help small games studios grow on Google Play, no matter what stage they are in:

  • If you are a small games studio looking for help to launch a new title, apply for the Accelerator to get mentorship and education;
  • Or, if you have already created and launched a high quality game that is ready for the spotlight, enter the Festival for a chance to win promotions.

This year the programs come with some changes, including more eligible markets and fully digital event experiences. Learn more below and apply by July 1st.

Accelerator: Get education and mentorship to supercharge your growth

If you’re an indie developer, early in your journey - either close to launching a new game or recently launched a title, this is the program for you. We’ll provide education and mentorship that will help you build, launch and grow successfully.

This year we have nearly doubled the eligible markets, with developers from over 70 countries being eligible to apply for the 2021 program.

Selected participants will be invited to take part in a 12-week online acceleration program. During this time you’ll get exclusive access to a community of Google and industry experts, as well as a network of other passionate developers from around the world looking to supercharge their growth.

Festival: win promotions that put your game in the spotlight

If you're an indie game developer who has recently launched a high quality game, this is your chance to have your game discovered by industry experts and players worldwide.

This year we will, again, host three competitions for developers from Japan, South Korea, and selected European countries.

Prizes include featuring on Google Play store, promotional campaigns worth 100,000 EUR, and more.

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Play Logo

Grow your indie game with help from Google Play

Posted by Patricia Correa, Director, Global Developer Marketing

Indie game image

At Google Play we’re committed to helping all developers thrive, whether these are large multinational companies or small startups and indie game studios. They are all critical to providing the services and experiences that people around the world look for on their Android devices. The indie game developer community, in particular, constantly pushes the boundaries with their creativity and passion, and bring unique and diverse content to players everywhere.

To continue supporting indies, today we’re opening submissions for two of our annual developer programs - the Indie Games Accelerator and the Indie Games Festival. These programs are designed to help small games studios grow on Google Play, no matter what stage they are in:

  • If you are a small games studio looking for help to launch a new title, apply for the Accelerator to get mentorship and education;
  • Or, if you have already created and launched a high quality game that is ready for the spotlight, enter the Festival for a chance to win promotions.

This year the programs come with some changes, including more eligible markets and fully digital event experiences. Learn more below and apply by July 1st.

Accelerator: Get education and mentorship to supercharge your growth

If you’re an indie developer, early in your journey - either close to launching a new game or recently launched a title, this is the program for you. We’ll provide education and mentorship that will help you build, launch and grow successfully.

This year we have nearly doubled the eligible markets, with developers from over 70 countries being eligible to apply for the 2021 program.

Selected participants will be invited to take part in a 12-week online acceleration program. During this time you’ll get exclusive access to a community of Google and industry experts, as well as a network of other passionate developers from around the world looking to supercharge their growth.

Festival: win promotions that put your game in the spotlight

If you're an indie game developer who has recently launched a high quality game, this is your chance to have your game discovered by industry experts and players worldwide.

This year we will, again, host three competitions for developers from Japan, South Korea, and selected European countries.

Prizes include features on Google Play store, promotional campaigns worth 100,000 EUR, and more.

The top Google Play updates from I/O ‘21

Posted by Alex Musil, Director of Product, Google Play

This year, we announced many great new features, tools, and updates to help you make the most of Google Play. You can check out all the updates in our I/O session, or keep reading for a quick overview of the new capabilities that will help take your business even further, from driving more installs to growing your engagement and revenue.

15% service fee for the first $1M in earnings

1. Earlier this year, we announced an additional service fee tier to help boost developer success on Google Play. Starting July 1st, the service fee will be 15% instead of 30% for your first $1M (USD) of earnings each year. You’ll be able to enroll for the new rate in Play Console the week of June 7th, so we’re sharing details about the process now to give you time to get ready.

New tools for managing policy compliance

2. We’ve built a new, dedicated Policy and Programs section in Play Console to provide you with a centralized place to see any policy compliance concerns, guidance on how to fix policy issues, and information about upcoming policy changes.

More SDK guidance

3. The new Google Play SDK Console lets providers report issues with their SDK versions so we can give you better guidance and recommendations. We’ve started with several large SDK providers and will continue to add more.

4. Later this year, we’re launching a new, public website with important insights about popular SDKs to help you choose the right SDK for your app. Learn more about how we’re helping you build safer and more stable apps in the I/O session below.

Helping more users discover your apps and games

5. To ensure that your store listing assets can help users anticipate your in-app or in-game experience and drive meaningful downloads, we’re pre-announcing a policy change for app metadata...

6. and introducing new guidelines on store listing preview assets.

Distribution features for the future of publishing

7. One million apps are in production using the Android App Bundle, with 15% size savings on average vs a universal APK. The app bundle is the future of publishing on Google Play and, starting August 1, 2021, they’ll be required for all new apps.

8. Based on developer feedback, we'll soon be launching an optional code transparency feature to offer additional cryptographic assurance that your app’s code on device has not been modified from its original version.

Identify growth opportunities with our new competitive insights

9. To help you understand your engagement and monetization trends and optimize your product plans, we’ve taken the best of our ecosystem data and contextualized your performance against peersets. Learn how to make the most of them in the I/O session below.

10. You can now also customize and pin the precise metrics that matter to you in a personalized KPIs section at the top of your app dashboard.

More features for a flexible monetization strategy

11. Your global reach just got even larger: In 2020, we added 34 new local forms of payment across 30 markets around the world.

12. We lowered the minimum prices developers can set for paid apps, in-app purchases, and subscriptions in 20 new markets across Latin America, EMEA, and APAC.

13. This year, we’ll be launching multi-quantity purchases, which will allow your users to buy more than one item at a time from the cart.

14. We’ll also be launching multi-line subscriptions, which will allow you to sell multiple products as part of a single subscription.

15. And finally, we’ll be launching prepaid plans, which will let you offer users access to content for a fixed amount of time. (Don’t worry, users can easily extend at any time.)

16. Want to take advantage of these new features? Many will be available when you integrate Play Billing Library version 4.0, and more will be rolling out later this year. As a reminder, new apps are required to integrate version 3.0 by August 2, 2021 or by November 1, 2021 for updates to existing apps.

Program enhancements to engage and retain users

17. This year, Google Play Pass expanded to over 40 markets, with more than 800 games and apps. Developers have on average more than doubled their Play revenue across participating titles in these markets. Let us know if you’d like to join!

18. Google Play Points expanded to 22 countries and added deeper integration with Play Console making it even easier for developers to onboard. Play’s loyalty program helps developers increase engagement and reduce churn with their most high value users. Developers can learn more about joining the program here.

More educational content

19. Want to learn more about any of these features? We’ve built a comprehensive website with best practices and resources to help you learn more about our programs and tools.

20. Last but not least, we’ve also added tons of new free courses to Google Play Academy. Whether you're about to launch your startup or grow your existing business on Play, Google Play Academy has you covered.

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New safety section in Google Play will give transparency into how apps use data

Posted by Suzanne Frey, VP, Product, Android Security and Privacy

Blog header

We work closely with developers to keep Google Play a safe, trusted space for billions of people to enjoy the latest Android apps. Today, we’re pre-announcing an upcoming safety section in Google Play that will help people understand the data an app collects or shares, if that data is secured, and additional details that impact privacy and security.

Developers agree that people should have transparency and control over their data. And they want simple ways to communicate app safety that are easy to understand and help users to make informed choices about how their data is handled. Developers also want to give additional context to explain data use and how safety practices could affect the app experience. So in addition to the data an app collects or shares, we’re introducing new elements to highlight whether:

  1. The app has security practices, like data encryption
  2. The app follows our Families policy
  3. The app needs this data to function or if users have choice in sharing it
  4. The app’s safety section is verified by an independent third-party
  5. The app enables users to request data deletion, if they decide to uninstall

This can be a big change, so we’re sharing this in advance and building with developers alongside us.

What this section will include

Among other things, we’ll ask developers to share:

  • What type of data is collected and stored: Examples of potential options are approximate or precise location, contacts, personal information (e.g. name, email address), photos & videos, audio files, and storage files
  • How the data is used: Examples of potential options are app functionality and personalization

Similar to app details like screenshots and descriptions, developers are responsible for the information disclosed in their section. Google Play will introduce a policy that requires developers to provide accurate information. If we find that a developer has misrepresented the data they’ve provided and is in violation of the policy, we will require the developer to fix it. Apps that don’t become compliant will be subject to policy enforcement.

What you can expect

All apps on Google Play - including Google's own apps - will be required to share this information and provide a privacy policy.

We’re committed to ensuring that developers have plenty of time to prepare. This summer, we’ll share the new policy requirements and resources, including detailed guidance on app privacy policies. Starting Q2 2022, new app submissions and app updates must include this information.

Timeline

Target Timeline (Dates subject to change)

In the future, we’ll continue providing new ways to simplify control for users and automate more work for developers.

In the meantime, here are some resources to help you design secure & privacy-friendly apps

We’re excited to advance our partnership with developers to make Google Play a trustworthy platform for everyone.

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Updated guidance to improve your app quality and discovery on Google Play

Posted by Bert de Weerd and Tingmui Li, Google Play

When Google Play launched in 2008, it was easy for developers to get noticed with only a few hundred apps and games live on the Play Store. Fast forward to today, there are now millions of apps and games available to audiences in over 190 countries. The unique assets you provide to the Store – images, video, descriptions, even your app name itself – are essential to users making a decision on what to download.

Google Play is increasingly showing more of your assets front and center, surfacing graphic assets and descriptions right on Apps and Games home. To ensure that your store listing assets can help users anticipate your in-app or in-game experience and drive meaningful downloads, we are:

  1. Pre-announcing a policy change for app metadata
  2. Introducing new guidelines on Store listing preview assets

1. Pre-announce policy change for app metadata

Since your app title, icon, and developer name are the most important discovery elements on your store listing page, we are preparing to launch a new set of policies to keep these elements recognizable and unique, focusing on:

  • Limiting the length of app titles to 30 characters
  • Prohibiting keywords that imply store performance, promotion in the icon, title and developer name
  • Eliminating graphic elements that may mislead users in the app icon

App title, icon and developer name that do not meet the upcoming policies will not be allowed on Google Play. You can expect more details about this policy change, including enforcement start dates, later this year.

We recommend reviewing the examples of do and don’t below and thinking about how these changes may impact you, so you can get ready for the upcoming policy changes.

Store performance or rank:
Price and promotional information:
Play programs and graphic elements that mislead users:
Emoticons & repeated or sequential special characters and or punctuations:

2. New guidelines for Store listing preview assets

We are also announcing new store listing preview asset guidelines for the feature graphics, screenshots, videos, and short descriptions you supply to showcase your app's features and functionality. Assets that don’t meet our guidelines may be ineligible for promotion and recommendation on major Google Play surfaces like Apps and Games home.

The new guideline for developer supplied assets focus on the following principles:

  • Do the preview assets accurately represent the app or game?
  • Do the preview assets provide enough information to help users decide whether to install?
  • Are the preview assets free of buzzwords like "free" or "best" and instead focus on providing meaningful information about the unique aspects of your app or game?
  • Are the preview assets localized correctly and easy to read?

To ensure that your apps and games are eligible for recommendations on all surfaces on Google Play, please review our new store listing guidelines. We’ll start using these guidelines to inform our recommendations starting in the second half of 2021.

We hope you found both the policy pre-announcement and preview asset guideline announcement useful as you plan your roadmap for the year, and we hope you share in our excitement for a more useful and engaging Play Store.

Customize the KPIs on your Google Play Console dashboard

Posted by Tom Grinsted, Product Manager, Google Play

Google Play Console metrics can help you understand your app’s performance across growth and acquisition, engagement and monetization, quality, and churn. But with dozens of metrics — and thousands of variations — we know not every metric is relevant to every person. One of the challenges you’ve shared with us is that it can sometimes be difficult to find exactly the metrics that you need for your personal job role, and to access them quickly and regularly once you have found them. .

That’s why today, we’re pleased to announce that you can now customize and pin the precise metrics that matter to you in a personalized KPIs section at the top of your app dashboard. These customizations are unique to you, so you can configure your KPIs however you want without affecting the rest of your team.

Getting started is easy. On the dashboard for any app, scroll down to the KPI section and select “choose KPIs.” You can either build your own or start with suggested KPIs for job specialities, such as Growth, Quality and Health, or Monetization.

There’s an extensive list of available metrics, including our new engagement data and peer comparisons. Search filters make it easy to find just what you want, and once selected you can edit the dimensions and filters to suit your exact needs. For instance, you could display Daily Active Users for your top-five languages; or if you’re a country manager, only show revenue from a specific country or territory.

You can name any of your KPIs to make them easy to remember, and even include emojis!

?

Once you’ve configured a list of KPIs that suit you, you can order them to control where they appear. This way, you can make sure that your most important metrics are always first to be seen.

You can include up to 20 KPIs, so your dashboard can be as robust or as streamlined as you want.

In addition to our suggested metrics, you can also pin any other dashboard card to your KPIs. For even finer control, you can even add any reports you’ve saved from the Statistics page. This allows you to create hyper-specific custom KPI cards from any of our core metrics.

There are as many ways to customize your KPIs as there are people using the console. Instead of seeing default KPIs, now everyone can have a customized dashboard showing exactly the metrics that matter to their individual workflows.

Ready to see for yourself? Just log into Google Play Console to try it out.


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Sub-dollar pricing expansion in 20 markets

Posted by Neethi Thomas, Dafna Gal and Ashnil Dixit, Google Play

At Google Play, we’re committed to giving Android developers access to the largest possible market for your apps and games. Google Play already supports free and paid apps in over 165 markets. We had previously lowered minimum prices developers can set for their products for 20 markets like India and Brazil. Today, we’re happy to announce that we have reduced the minimum price limit for products in 20 more markets across Latin America, EMEA, and APAC.

With these new lower limits, you can now set prices in the range of 10-30 cents US equivalent in most of these markets. These ultra-low price points, or “sub-dollar” prices, allow you to reach new potential buyers by adjusting your pricing to better reflect local purchasing power and demand. It also gives you more flexibility to set your global pricing strategy and gives more users the opportunity to enjoy monetized experiences in your apps and games.

The minimum price limit for paid apps, in-app products, and subscriptions has been lowered in these new markets: Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Croatia, Hungary, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Pakistan, Paraguay, Romania, Serbia, Thailand, Tanzania and Vietnam.

Additional markets where sub-dollar pricing is available: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey and Ukraine

To adjust your prices in Google Play Console, please see our Help Center article. The full list of price ranges can be found here.


Best practices for sub-dollar pricing

Since the feature was introduced in 2015, Android developers have been using sub-dollar pricing to expand their paying user base in creative ways. Here are a few ways you can use sub-dollar pricing to help grow your own business:

  • Try offering limited-time promotions. Sub-dollar pricing is a great tool to entice new users through promotions, or to reward loyal users with low-cost perks. For example, to convert more paying users of their popular game Lords Mobile, developer IGG sometimes offers special bundles for only IDR 3000 (USD 0.20) that offer 2-3x more value for a limited time. Because these are special offers, it allowed them to expand their payer base without cannibalization.
  • Offer seasonal deals. Sub-dollar pricing is also useful for seasonal sales. Because users know they have a limited opportunity to buy these items, it makes them more attractive. Combined with the low price, it can be an attractive offer for first time buyers. Moonton offers rare skins when users make their first purchase of the season in Mobile Legends, even if it’s a sub-dollar purchase.
  • Try introductory pricing offers. Sub-dollar pricing can also be used to attract new paying users with introductory pricing. For example, you could offer users who have never made a purchase a valuable item at a sub-dollar price. Developer Moonton does this, offering users access to popular heroes in their game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang when they make their first purchase. This strategy helps them reach new paying users without much impact on their overall game economy.
  • Reward loyalty. You can also try sub-dollar pricing in conjunction with repeat purchase events. For example, you could offer special bonuses to players making one purchase a day for seven days, without users spending more than they are comfortable with.
  • Offer gacha. Sub-dollar pricing works well for chance-based items, or “gacha,” which can appeal to new users. Users who aren’t willing to spend $5 on a valuable in-game item may be willing to pay $0.15 to open a treasure chest with a chance of finding the item inside. By offering gacha at sub-dollar pricing, many users may be willing to pay a token amount just to try their luck.


There are many ways to use sub-dollar and localized pricing and the suggestions listed above are just a starting point. We’re excited to see how you’ll use our features to grow your business.

Google Play Console powers better strategic decisions with new engagement metrics and unique benchmarks

Posted by Tom Grinsted, Product Manager, Google Play

Today in Google Play Console, we’ve launched a suite of new metrics* and unique comparative benchmarks. Using these, you can evaluate your app or games’ engagement and monetization trends against up to 250 different peersets, helping you make better, more informed decisions about your product roadmaps and opportunities.

Whether you want to prioritize new features to drive engagement, experiment with pricing, or drive up retention, we hear from all developers that they need great data and insights to help make the best investments.

While some larger developers can compare data from across their portfolios, this isn’t always possible — for instance, when entering a new territory, if you don’t publish directly comparable apps, or if you only publish one or two games in the first place. In these types of cases, how do you know if your app or game’s performance is good and where you can be better?

With this launch, we’re here to help all developers better contextualize and understand their performance. Here’s what’s new:

New engagement and monetization metrics

In partnership with experts in mobile apps and games growth, we’ve introduced a new set of engagement and monetization metrics based on best practices in evaluating app and game performance. These include:

  • DAU/MAU
    The ratio of users who open your app each day vs. each month (28-day rolling period). This is a key measure of “stickiness.” It tells you if you’re driving regular, habitual use.
  • 28-day returning users
    The percentage of your daily users who have also used your app in the previous 28 days. This can help you judge if you’re building a loyal audience.
  • DAU and MAU growth rates
    How quickly you’re growing the number of users who open your app daily and at least once in 28 days. These are your fundamental audience-growth measurements.
  • ARPDAU
    Average Revenue Per Daily Active User. This is your daily revenue divided by your DAU, which measures your success in driving revenue from your users.
  • Average purchase value
    How much you make on average from each transaction. This is useful for pricing optimization decisions.
  • Purchases per buyer and User-buyer ratios
    The number of times buyers transact with you, and the percentage of your DAUs and MAUs who become buyers. Especially helpful if you’re looking to see if there’s growth opportunity in increasing how many people purchase or how often.

In total, we’re launching 15 new normalized metrics with benchmarks, and making the absolute numerators and denominators available to query, too. They can all be found in the new “Compare to peers” tab in the Statistics page*. For convenience, we’ve included other key normalized metrics, like store listing conversions, here too.

Track your performance with peerset comparison

To power your decision-making and help you discover areas of opportunity, all of these new normalized metrics are launching with peerset comparison performance as standard. You’ll be able to track your metrics over time and compare up to 250 different types of apps and games such as “Match-3 games,” “Audiobooks,” or “Comics.”

Compare your performance to peers on the Statistics page in Google Play Console.

Country filters allow you to customise these insights to suit your business needs. For instance, you’ll be able to see if games similar to yours are driving more revenue from users in Japan, or if your team’s latest feature drop means that you’re outperforming other similar apps in terms of loyalty in India.

During our development process, we tested this suite of new insights with select partners. As well as useful in shaping our approach, their feedback has been positive:

Plarium logo
"These new metrics and comparisons help drive our decision-making. Not just around what we should do with our games right now, but also strategic decisions about upcoming games. For us, it's already one of the most valuable features on the Play Console."

Guy Ulmer, Plarium Global Ltd.

To help you make the most of these new metrics and insights, we’ve launched a new course on Play Academy to get you up to speed. You can also check out our masterclass webinars about super-powering your growth.

Strong privacy protections for users and developers

The data powering these new metrics comes from users who have agreed to share their app activity with Google, and is modeled to better represent the whole population. The data simply records if an app is opened in the foreground. Users have control over their data and can opt out of sharing it, or delete individual events, in myactivity.google.com.

Additionally, these new developer metrics are our first to use differential privacy - an advanced technique that provides increased privacy protections across datasets. You can find out more about this approach in our technical blog.

Just like previous benchmark launches, all of the peer comparison metrics come with protections for developer privacy. The data is generated from a large number of apps and games, and the peer groups, driven by Play Store’s advanced tagging system, do not share the performance of individual apps. So although you can find high-quality, reliable, useful peerset comparisons we've worked to obscure the performance of any individual competitor’s app from the peersets you see, and obscure your apps' performance in peersets too.

More to come

This is the first launch of a multi-year project to bring more helpful insights and active recommendations to Google Play Console. The largest mobile app developers often use growth consultants to help inform their long-term strategic product decisions. We’re dedicated to bringing this kind of help and expertise to all Play developers via the console. So look out for more launches over next year!

*Please note you need a Google Play Console account to access these links.


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