Tag Archives: Developer

Publish private apps to multiple organizations

Businesses using Google Mobile Management and other Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) providers can publish Android apps customized for their workplace directly to their managed Google Play store, where their employees can easily access and install them. In some cases, these customers have set up multiple “organizations” within their domain (e.g. to serve different regions, for testing purposes, etc.), each of which needs access to the custom app. To meet this need, we recently made it possible to publish a single private app to up to 20 organizations. This has several advantages:
  1. Developers can publish apps to domains other than their own (including developers with personal @gmail.com accounts).
  2. Developers no longer need to be admins of the organizations they’re publishing to.
  3. Businesses can more easily delegate app publishing to third-party developers.
  4. Private app publishing remains secure, because the developer must have the target organization’s Organization ID and an admin must approve any apps targeted to their organization.


For more information, please see the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Available to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Publish private apps


Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

Publish private apps to multiple organizations

Businesses using Google Mobile Management and other Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) providers can publish Android apps customized for their workplace directly to their managed Google Play store, where their employees can easily access and install them. In some cases, these customers have set up multiple “organizations” within their domain (e.g. to serve different regions, for testing purposes, etc.), each of which needs access to the custom app. To meet this need, we recently made it possible to publish a single private app to up to 20 organizations. This has several advantages:
  1. Developers can publish apps to domains other than their own (including developers with personal @gmail.com accounts).
  2. Developers no longer need to be admins of the organizations they’re publishing to.
  3. Businesses can more easily delegate app publishing to third-party developers.
  4. Private app publishing remains secure, because the developer must have the target organization’s Organization ID and an admin must approve any apps targeted to their organization.


For more information, please see the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Available to both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release

Editions:
Available to all G Suite editions

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Publish private apps


Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

Meet the finalists of the Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe

Posted by Adriana Puchianu, Developer Marketing Google Play

Back in October we launched the 2nd edition of the Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe, with the aim to identify, showcase and reward indie gaming talent from more than 30 countries. We were amazed by the innovation and creativity that indie developers from the region have to offer.

Selecting just 20 finalists has once again been a huge challenge. We had a lot of fun playing the games that will go on to showcase at the Saatchi Gallery on February 13th in London. Without further ado, we are happy to announce the Top 20 finalists of this year's edition. Congratulations to the finalists and thanks to everyone else who has entered the contest.

A Planet of Mine
Tuesday Quest
France

Bridge Constructor Portal
ClockStone Softwareentwicklung GmbH
Austria

Bury me, my Love
Playdius
France

Captain Tom Galactic Traveler
Picodongames
France

Core
FURYJAM
Russia

Flat Pack
Nitrome
United Kingdom

Fern Flower
Macaque
Poland

I Love Hue
Zut!
United Kingdom

Jodeo
Gamebra.in
Turkey

Kami 2
State of Play
United Kingdom

Kenshō
FIFTYTWO
Russia

No More Buttons
Tommy Søreide Kjær
Norway

Old Man's Journey
Broken Rules Interactive Media GmbH
Austria

Broken Rules Interactive Media GmbH
Developster
Germany

The Big Journey
Catfishbox
Ukraine

The House of Da Vinci
Blue Brain Games, s.r.o.
Slovakia

The Office Quest
11Sheep
Israel

Unbalance
TVEE
Turkey

Undervault
Andriy Bychkovskyi
Ukraine

yellow
Bart Bonte
Belgium

Check out the prizes

All the 20 finalists are getting:

  • A paid trip to London to showcase their game at the Final held at Saatchi Gallery
  • Inclusion of their game on a promotional billboard in London for 1 month
  • Inclusion of their game in a dedicated Indie Games Contest collection on the Indie Corner for one month in more than 40 countries across EMEA
  • Two (2) tickets to attend a 2018 Playtime event, an invitation-only event for top apps and games developers on Google Play
  • One (1) Pixel 2 device

They will also have the chance to win more prizes at the final event.

Join the Google Play team and the finalists at the final event:

Anyone can now register to attend the final showcase event for free at the Saatchi Gallery in London on 13 February 2018. Come and play some great games and have fun with indie developers, industry experts, and the Google Play team.

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Get the most out of Data Studio Community Connectors

Data Studio Community Connectors enable direct connections from Data Studio to any internet accessible data source. Anyone can build their own Community Connector or use any available ones.

Try out the new Community Connectors in the gallery

We have recently added additional Community Connectors to the Data Studio Community Connector gallery from developers including: DataWorx, Digital Inspiration, G4interactive, Kevpedia, Marketing Miner, MarketLytics, Mito, Power My Analytics, ReportGarden, and Supermetrics. These connectors will let you access data from additional external sources, leveraging Data Studio as a free and powerful reporting and analysis solution. You can now use more than 50 Community Connectors from within the Gallery to access all your data.

Try out these free Community Connectors: Salesforce, Twitter, Facebook Marketing.

Find the connector you need

In the Data Studio Community Connector gallery, it is possible for multiple connectors to connect to the same data source. There are also instances where a single connector can connect to multiple data sources. To help users find the connector they need, we have added the Data Sources page where you can search for Data Sources and see what connectors are available to use. The connector list includes native connectors in Data Studio as well as verified and Open Source Community Connectors. You can directly use the connectors by clicking the direct links on the Data Sources page.

Vote for your data source

If your data source is not available to use through any existing connector, you can Vote for your data source. This will let developers know which Data Sources are most in demand. Developers should also let us know which Community Connector you are building. We will use this information to update the Data Sources page.

Tell us your story

If you have any interesting connector stories, ideas, or if you’d like to share some amazing reports you’ve created using Community Connectors please let us know by giving us a shout or send us your story at [email protected].

Posted by Minhaz Kazi, Data Studio Developer Relations Team

Final preview of Android 8.1 now available

Posted by Dave Burke, VP of Engineering

Starting today we're rolling out an update to the Android 8.1 developer preview, the last before the official launch to consumers in December. Android 8.1 adds targeted enhancements to the Oreo platform, including optimizations for Android Go (for devices with 1GB or less of memory) and a Neural Networks API to accelerate on-device machine intelligence. We've also included a few smaller enhancements to Oreo in response to user and developer feedback.

If you have a device enrolled in the Android Beta Program, you'll receive the update over the next few days. If you haven't enrolled yet, just visit the Android Beta site to enroll and get the update.

At the official release in December we'll bring Android 8.1 to all supported Pixel and Nexus devices worldwide -- including Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 5X, and Nexus 6P. Watch for announcements soon.

What's in this update?

This preview update includes near-final Android 8.1 system images for Pixel and Nexus devices, with official APIs (API level 27), the latest optimizations and bug fixes, and the November 2017 security patch updates. You can use the images for compatibility testing or to develop using new Android 8.1 features like the Neural Networks API and others.

The Neural Networks API provides accelerated computation and inference for on-device machine learning frameworks like TensorFlow Lite -- Google's cross-platform ML library for mobile -- as well as Caffe2 and others. TensorFlow Lite is now available to developers, so visit the TensorFlow Lite open source repo for downloads and docs. TensorFlow Lite works with the Neural Networks API to run models like MobileNets, Inception v3, and Smart Reply efficiently on your mobile device.

Also, for Pixel 2 users, the Android 8.1 update on these devices enables Pixel Visual Core -- Google's first custom-designed co-processor for image processing and ML -- through a new developer option. Once enabled, apps using Android Camera API can capture HDR+ shots through Pixel Visual Core. See the release notes for details.

Get your apps ready

With the consumer launch coming in December, it's important to test your current app now. This ensures that users transition seamlessly to Android 8.1 when it arrives on their devices.

Just enroll your eligible device in Android Beta to get the latest update, then install your app from Google Play and test. If you don't have a Pixel or Nexus device, you can set up an Android 8.1 emulator for testing instead. If you notice any issues, fix them and update your app in Google Play right away -- without changing the app's platform targeting.

When you're ready, take advantage of new features and APIs in Android 8.1. See the developer preview site, the API 27 diff report, and the updated API reference for details.

Speed your development with Android Studio

To build with Android 8.1, we recommend updating to Android Studio 3.0, which is now available from the stable channel. On top of the new app performance profiling tools, support for the Kotlin programming language, and Gradle build optimizations, Android Studio 3.0 makes it easier to develop with Android Oreo features like Instant Apps, XML Fonts, downloadable fonts, and adaptive icons.

We also recommend updating to the Android Support Library 27.0.0, which is available from Google's Maven repository. See the version notes for details on what's new.

Publish your updates to Google Play

Google Play is open for apps compiled against or targeting API 27. When you're ready, you can publish your APK updates in your alpha, beta, or production channels.

To make sure your app runs well on Android 8.1 as well as older versions, we recommend using Google Play's beta testing feature to run an alpha test on small group of users. Then run a much open beta test on a much larger group of users. When you're ready to launch your update, you can use a staged rollout in your production channel. We're looking forward to seeing your app updates!

Give us your feedback

As always, your feedback is crucial, so please keep it coming!. We've set up different hotlists where you can report Android platform issues, app compatibility issues, and third-party SDKs and tools issues. We also have a dedicated hotlist for Neural Networks API issues.

You can also give us feedback through the Android Developer community or Android Beta community as we work towards the consumer release in December.

Open Source Community Connectors for Data Studio

More than six hundred developers have signed up for developer access to Data Studio Community Connectors since the Developer Launch. Community Connectors give developers an opportunity to come up with innovative solutions for data access and broaden the scope of data sources users can connect to.

Based on community feedback, we recognized that many of you are looking to share your work on connectors with the community. Also, developers are looking for more examples to follow. With these community needs in mind, today, we are announcing the Open Source Community Connectors repository on GitHub.


Use open source Community Connectors


For every connector that is hosted in the open source repository, the Data Studio Developer Relations team will manage a deployment for the connector’s latest code. This managed deployment will enable all users to immediately try the connector in Data Studio by simply clicking a link. Managed deployments also make it easier for developers since you do not have to deploy and maintain the connectors yourself; we’ll take care of this for you.

You can try out the following Open Source connectors directly in Data Studio:


Example dashboards using these connectors:



Learn about best practices


If you want to connect to new Data Sources using Data Studio but have not yet looked into Community Connectors, now would be the best time to start since a variety of example connector code have become available. These examples will give you a head start and create a platform for you to learn and share with other community members.

Initially, we are releasing these connectors in our open source repository:



Contribute to the community


If want to submit your own open source connector to the repository, you can send us a pull request. Alternatively you can maintain your own repository and link to that from the official repository.

This Git repository is a small start where we plan to make new additions. We have already seen other open source Community Connectors like data.world and getSTAT. We are hoping that initiative will help developers and users to create connectors to new Data Sources and thus make more data accessible in Data Studio. Developers can also collaborate with each other as well as report new issues and fix existing ones through these open source connectors.

This collaboration platform gives developers the option to leverage support from the community. If you want to develop your own connector but are unable to maintain it in the long run, you can add it to our repository so that the community can support it.

Visit the repository and start building your own Community Connector today!


Posted by Minhaz Kazi, Google Analytics team

Google Play’s Indie Games Contest is back in Europe. Enter now

Posted by Adriana Puchianu, Developer Marketing Google Play

Following last year's success, today we're announcing the second annual Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe, expanding to more countries and bigger prizes. The contest rewards your passion, creativity and innovation, and provides support to help bring your game to more people.

Prizes for the finalists and winners

  • A trip to London to showcase your game at the Saatchi Gallery
  • Paid digital marketing campaigns worth up to 100,000 EUR
  • Influencer campaigns worth up to 50,000 EUR
  • Premium placements on Google Play
  • Promotion on Android and Google Play marketing channels
  • Tickets to Google I/O 2018 and other top industry events
  • Latest Google hardware
  • Special prizes for the best Unity games


How to enter the contest

If you're based in one of the 28 eligible countries, have 30 or less full time employees, and published a new game on Google Play after 1 January 2017, you may now be eligible to enter the contest. If you're planning on publishing a new game soon, you can also enter by submitting a private beta. Check out all the details in the terms and conditions. Submissions close on 31 December 2017.

Up to 20 finalists will showcase their games at an open event at the Saatchi Gallery in London on the 13th February 2018. At the event, the top 10 will be selected by the event attendees and the Google Play team. The top 10 will then pitch to the jury of industry experts, from which the final winner and runners up will be selected.

Come along to the final event

Anyone can register to attend the final showcase event at the Saatchi Gallery in London on 13 February 2018. Play some great indie games and have fun with indie developers,industry experts, and the Google Play team.

Enter now

Visit the contest site to find out more and enter the Indie Games Contest now.

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Why you should localize your app or game for Middle East and North Africa

By Mohammad El-Saadi, Business Development, Google Play

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is a fast growing market for app and game developers on Google Play, and localizing is crucial to making the most of the opportunity. For example, the main grossing apps & games in Saudi Arabia have localized their store listings and their actual app and game on Google Play.

The British team behind the Skyscanner travel app had already localised it into more than 15 languages, yet the launch in Arabic was a huge milestone for them. Arabic speaking users really appreciated the localization and the app's average user rating increased from 4.62☆ to 4.77☆ after localization. Users engaged with the app longer, with an increase of 30% in their average session duration. Additionally 50% more travellers have been redirected to Skyscanner partners to book flight, hotel and car hire deals.


Skyscanner opening screen in English and in Arabic
But how difficult is it to correctly localize your app or game to Arabic?

The team at Skyscanner managed to develop Right-To-Left (RTL) Arabic language support within the app in two weeks: "Our initial fear was that we would need lots of manual coding for the layouts. However, the Android layout system handled all of the cases really well. We were already using *Start and *End margin and padding in line with guidelines, but there's also Android Studio support and Lint check to fix any issues automatically." says Tamas Chrenoczy-Nagy, Senior Software Engineer.

Many other top apps and games developers are successfully investing in localizing for MENA users. For example, when game developer Pocket Gems localised War Dragons, the installs by Arabic speaking users tripled. Their percentage of revenue from Arabic language players also went from effectively 0% to ~1.5%.

We just refreshed the Now in Arabic collection (MENA only) with 16 newly localized apps and games, including titles like Netflix, Periscope and Clash of Queen Dragons. It will be live until May 11 on Google Play in the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates.


Check our Localization Checklist for best practices when localizing for any language, and our Going Global Playbook. When your app or game in Arabic is ready, you can self-nominate to be part of future refreshes of the Now in Arabic collection by filling in this form.


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And the winners of the Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe are…

Posted by Matteo Vallone, Google Play Games Business Development


Today, at Saatchi Gallery in London, we hosted the final event of the first Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe. The 20 finalists, selected from nearly 1000 submissions, came from 12 countries to showcase their games to an excited room of gamers, industry experts and press. Selected based on the votes of the attendees and the Google Play team, the Top 10 pitched in front of a jury of industry experts who chose the top winners.


Stay tuned for more pictures and a video of the event.

Without further ado, join us in congratulating the winners!

Winner & Unity prize winner:

Reigns, by Nerial, from the United Kingdom

You are the King. For each decision, you only have two choices. Survive the exercise of power and the craziness of your advisors... as long as you can.

 Runners up:
The Battle of Polytopia, by Midjiwan AB, from Sweden

A turn based strategic adventure. It's a game about ruling the world, fighting evil AI tribes, discovering new lands and mastering new technologies.
Causality, by Loju, from the United Kingdom

A puzzle about manipulating time, altering the sequence of events and changing the outcome of each level to help a group of astronauts find a route to safety.


The other top games selected by the event attendees and the Google Play team are:


Blind Drive, by Lo-Fi People, from Israel

You're driving blindfolded as a mysterious voice gives you suicidal commands on the phone. Survive on-rushing vehicles using only your hearing to guide you.
Gladiabots, by GFX47, from France

A competitive tactical game in which you design the AI of your robot squad. Use your own strategy, refine it online and fight for the top of the leaderboard.
Happy Hop: Kawaii Jump, by Platonic Games, from Spain

This isn't just an original one-tap endless hopper, it's also the cutest one. Ever wondered what's in the end of the rainbow? That would be Happy Hop.
Lost in Harmony, by Digixart Entertainment, from France

Experience music in a new way with the combination of rhythmic tapping and choreographic runner to go through two memorable journeys with Kaito and M.I.R.A.I.
Paper Wings, by Fil Games, from Turkey

A fast-paced arcade game which puts you in control of an origami bird. Avoid the hazards and collect the falling coins to keep your paper bird alive.
Pinout, by Mediocre, from Sweden

A breathtaking pinball arcade experience: race against time in a continuous journey through this canyon of pulsating lights and throbbing retro wave beats.
Rusty Lake: Roots, by Rusty Lake, from Netherlands

James Vanderboom's life drastically changes when he plants a special seed in the garden. Expand your bloodline by unlocking portraits in the tree of life.
Check out the prizes
The prizes of this contest were designed to help the winners showcase their art and grow their business on Android and Google Play, including:
  • YouTube influencer campaigns worth up to 100,000 EUR
  • Premium placements on Google Play
  • Tickets to Google I/O 2017 and other top industry events
  • Promotions on our channels
  • Special prizes for the best Unity game
  • And more!
What’s next?
The week is not over just yet for Indie games developers. Tomorrow we are hosting the Indie Games Workshop for all indie games developers from across EMEA in the new Google office in Kings Cross.

 It’s been really inspiring to see the enthusiasm around this inaugural edition, and the quality and creativity of the indie games developed across the eligible European countries. We are looking forward to bringing a new edition of the contest to you in late 2017.

Many thanks again to everyone who entered the contest. We can’t wait to see the amazing games that you will create this year to delight Android users.

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Meet the 20 finalists of the Google Play Indie Games Contest

Posted by Matteo Vallone, Google Play Games Business Development

Back in November, we launched the Google Play Indie Games Contest for developers from 15 European countries, to celebrate the passion and innovation of the indie community in the region. The contest will reward the winners with exposure to industry experts and players worldwide, as well as other prizes that will showcase their art and help them grow their business on Android and Google Play.

Thank you to the nearly 1000 of you who submitted high quality games in all types of genres! Your creativity, enthusiasm and dedication have once again impressed us and inspired us. We had a very fun time testing and judging the games based on fun, innovation, design excellence and technical and production quality, and it was challenging to select only 20 finalists:

Meet the 20 finalists
(In alphabetical order)

Blind Drive
(coming soon)

Lo-Fi People
Israel
Causality
(coming soon)

Loju
United Kingdom
Crap! I'm Broke: Out of Pocket
Arcane Circus Netherlands
Egz

 Lonely Woof
France
Ellipsis

Salmi GmbH Germany
Gladiabots


GFX47
France
Happy Hop: Kawaii Jump

 Platonic Games
Spain
Hidden Folks (coming soon)

 Adriaan de Jongh Netherlands
Lichtspeer
(coming soon)

Lichthund
Poland
Lost in Harmony
Digixart

 Entertainment France
Mr Future Ninja (coming soon)

Huijaus Studios
Finland
Paper Wings


Fil Games
Turkey
PinOut


Mediocre
Sweden
Power Hover
Oddrok
Finland
Reigns

Nerial
United Kingdom
Rusty Lake: Roots
Rusty Lake Netherlands
Samorost 3


Amanita Design Czech Republic
The Battle of Polytopia

Midjiwan AB Sweden
twofold inc.


Grapefrukt games Sweden
Unworded (coming soon)

Bento Studio France

Check out the prizes

All the 20 finalists are getting:
  • The opportunity to exhibit and showcase their game at the final event held at the Saatchi Gallery in London, on 16th February 2017.
  • Promotion of their game on a London billboard for one month.
  • Two tickets to attend a 2017 Playtime event. This is an invitation-only event for top apps and games developers on Google Play.
  • One Pixel XL smartphone.
At the event at Saatchi, the finalists will also have a chance to make it to the next rounds and win additional prizes, including:
  • YouTube influencer campaigns worth up to 100,000 EUR.
  • Premium placements on Google Play.
  • Tickets to Google I/O 2017 and other top industry events.
  • Promotions on our channels.
  • Special prizes for the best Unity game.
  • And more!

 Come support them at the final event

At the final event attendees will have a say on which 10 of these finalists will get to pitch their games to the jury, who will decide on the final contest winners who will receive the top prizes.

Register now to join us in London, meet the developers, check out their great games, vote for your favourites, and have fun with various industry experts and indie developers.



A big thank you again to everyone who entered and congratulations to the finalists. We look forward to seeing you at the Saatchi Gallery in London on 16th February.