Tag Archives: Google Play

Notes from Google Play: Celebrating another year of partnership and innovation

Posted by Sam Bright, Vice President & General Manager, Google Play

Hello everyone,

Since joining the team at the start of this year, I’ve been continuously inspired by our incredible community of people building apps and games, and it’s been my privilege to support your hard work and creativity. In particular, it’s been exciting to see you not only identify new user needs, but to develop innovative ways of solving them with your apps and games. This year, our annual Best of Play awards introduced new categories to recognize these achievements, including “Best with AI” and “Best multi-device app and game.”

No matter where you are on your developer journey, whether you just published your first app or already reached a global audience, Google Play is committed to being your partner in growth. Here’s a look back at some of the key tools, features, and programs we built this year to help you reach your full potential and build a successful business on Google Play.

Check out the video below or keep reading for more details about this year’s updates.

New tools and features built in 2023

User growth and engagement:

Monetization:

    • Generate revenue more effectively with the ability to A/B test prices to optimize for local purchasing power at scale.
    • Grow and retain your subscribers with our new subscription capabilities, such as the ability to offer different auto-renewing and prepaid plan prices per billing period.
    • To help you optimize for a global audience, we’ve started automatically updating our min/max price ranges to reflect currency fluctuations against the US dollar. You’ll also see a notification anytime we recommend a price adjustment for your in-app products.
    • We added several popular local payment methods to our extensive library, including PicPay in Brazil and PayPay in Japan, and expanded our support of UPI in India.
    • And with the introduction of our new alternative billing APIs, developers offering an alternative billing system alongside Google Play’s can enjoy a more streamlined experience.

Privacy and security:

Investing in our app and game community

This year, our Indie Games programs helped businesses of all sizes grow on Play. Through our Indie Games Fund, we awarded $2 million and offered hands-on support to 10 Latin American studios to help them grow their games on our platform. And for mentorship from Google and industry experts, early-career indie developers can apply for the Indie Games Accelerator from now until December 12, 2023.

We’re also pushing for greater representation and equity in the developer community by giving $600,000 across 13 nonprofit organizations around the world to support more inclusive programming. For example, we’ve partnered with Global Game Jam and the IGDA Foundation to host a game jam that helps women across Asia and Latin America launch careers in game development.

And finally, we continued our tour of the world by sharing and celebrating your stories through #WeArePlay. This year, we spotlighted over 260 app and game businesses from Europe, Japan, India and more.

Meet Solape & Yomi from Nigeria, founders of financial app HerVest

Looking ahead

I’m excited about the future of Google Play, which will see even more updates and improvements to the work we did this year.

For example, you may have noticed that we gave the Play Store a fresh look this year, with more visual components, new video capabilities, and fluid animations, and introduced new ways for people to discover, engage, and re-engage with your apps and games. In addition to new original editorial content and livestream events, we also developed new ways for users to be rewarded for their play, such as with time-bound offers and promotions.

Next year, we’ll build on that investment, going deeper to provide more value to users — and, in turn, to your businesses. We’re looking to:

    • Continue to improve gaming experiences across platforms,
    • Direct users to the right experiences, within and across apps,
    • Help folks get the most out of their devices, and
    • Make it easier for users and developers to transact when they want to.

As you know, Google Play is more than an app marketplace. We connect people with the experiences they’ll love, wherever they are, on whatever device they’re using. A big part of this is our continued focus on making it easier for people to find your latest, most relevant app and game content. It also means going beyond the Play Store to deliver this content to people across their devices, when and where it's most relevant.

Once again, I want to thank you for all the hard work you’ve put into making Google Play the best place for apps and games. I can’t wait to see what you build next.

On behalf of all of us at Google Play, happy holidays and best wishes for an amazing 2024.

Sam Bright
Vice President and General Manager, Google Play

The latest updates to power your growth on Google Play

Posted by Paul Feng – Vice President of Product Management, Google Play

Our annual Playtime event series kicks off tomorrow, with announcements from our product teams and insights from local Google experts. If you’re not one of the attendees joining us in person this year, here’s a sneak preview of the product news we’ll be sharing to help you grow successful, long-term businesses on Google Play.

Check out our top five updates in the video below, or read on for the full list.

More ways to boost growth and engagement

This year, we improved three of our most impactful offerings: custom store listings, the deep links page in Play Console, and Google Play Games on PC.

Custom store listings enable you to optimize your conversion rate and acquisitions by creating different messaging for different user segments. Many of you have already been using your 50 custom store listings to tailor your messaging by country, pre-registration status, Google Ads campaigns, or to inactive users.

Now, we’re making it even easier to create and manage your listings with the ability to:

    • Save your listings as a draft to continue editing later
    • Schedule your listings to publish when you want and for the duration you choose
    • Test your listings with a portion of your audience before rolling them out

Last year, we launched a new Play Console page dedicated to deep links to help you discover additional opportunities for growth and engagement. This page flags broken deep links and provides detailed guidance on how to fix them, as well as helps you rationalize your web-to-app mapping by reviewing your top website URLs and their deep link status.

This year, we improved the page with new metrics and insights to help you make the most of your deep link strategy. You can now:

    • Make sure the landing pages from your ad campaigns are deep-linked
    • See the percentage of your top-performing URLs that have been deep-linked, so you can see where you have an opportunity to direct more users to your app
    • Find out what percentage of users with your app installed would have the URL open inside the app

ALT TEXT

For game developers, we’ve expanded our Google Play Games on PC beta to help you grow your user base. Since we launched the program last year, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth. Google Play Games on PC currently reaches users in more than 120 countries, offering over 3,000 titles including Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Free Fire MAX, and Angry Birds 2*. Learn more about how Google Play Games on PC has improved the quality of the gaming experience to accelerate your growth.

More ways to reach your monetization goals

To help you more effectively generate revenue from your audiences, we're rolling out new features on our commerce platform to help you optimize your prices, reach more buyers, and better manage user purchases.

At this year's I/O, we launched price experiments for in-app products, allowing you to test price points and optimize for local purchasing power at scale. Next month, you’ll be able to:

    • Save your experiments as drafts to edit later
    • Remove a poorly performing variant during the experiment
    • See warning notifications for potential price configuration issues
    • Apply the ”winning” price to any and all products within the experiment

We’ve also started automatically updating our min/max price ranges to reflect currency fluctuations against the US dollar, and you’ll see a new Play Console Inbox notification anytime we recommend a price adjustment of your in-app products.

We also made several updates to help you better reach a global audience. Now you can more efficiently display available products and offers to users based on regional availability with the new getBillingConfigAsync API, which provides the user’s applicable country for Google Play. Our extensive payment method library now includes popular payment methods PayPay eWallet and cash top-ups at over 14,500 Lawson stores throughout Japan, cash top-ups at over 18,000 7-Eleven stores in Mexico, ShopeePay eWallet in the Philippines, Verve Card in Nigeria, and China UnionPay Card throughout select East Asian and Southeast Asian markets.

Coming soon, real-time developer notifications will expand to include notifications for one-time purchases and voided purchases such as cancellations, revocations, and chargebacks. These will give you more visibility and help you better manage purchases, including making quicker entitlement adjustments and taking action against potential fraud and abuse.

We’re also continuing our commitment to user choice billing, giving you more flexibility and choice when monetizing on Google Play. Developers enrolled in user choice billing can offer an additional billing system alongside Google Play’s in over 35 markets. And now, we’re making the alternative billing APIs available to participating developers with users across these markets. With the APIs integrated, developers can look forward to a more streamlined experience:

    • User choice screens rendered by Google Play: you will no longer need to build and maintain the information and/or choice screens as required by UX guidelines
    • Alternative billing settings in Play Console: manage alternative billing settings for eligible apps, including market enrollment, payment method logo, and more
    • Simplified transaction reporting: removing manual touchpoints
    • Google Play Top Charts: transactions reported via API are reflected on Top Charts
    • Improved reporting: transactions reported via API enable more detailed developer reporting - including exchange rates, associated app package ID, service fee rates, and more
Illustrative example of the user experience for user choice billing

Helping you deliver high-quality experiences

To connect people with experiences they’ll love, we continuously invest in new tools, features, and programs to help you build high-quality apps and games. As a reminder, we measure quality across four key pillars: core value, user experience, technical quality, and privacy and security.

For example, we’re increasing the app bundle size limit from 150MB to 200MB to help you deliver more functionality to improve your core value and user experience. Because Play will continue to deliver only the relevant content, users will only experience your enhanced functionality and not increased app size.

To help you improve your technical quality, we’re excited to announce some new features in Android vitals to help you monitor your title against per-device bad behavior thresholds and effectively manage and debug issues. You can now:

    • Monitor and detect issues with release rollouts using hourly vitals data
    • Analyze longer-term trends in technical performance with 3 years of Android vitals data
    • Prioritize devices by business impact with per-device business metrics like store listing impressions, average rating, and daily active device metrics
    • Get notified via email and Play Console Inbox when your per-device bad behavior threshold exceeds 8%
    • Analyze Android vitals crash event data and potential fixes alongside your code directly within Android Studio via App Quality Insights
    • Grant Play Console teammates limited access to app quality data only


And finally, to help ensure you're delivering the best experience to your users while you’re on the go, check out the recently refreshed Play Console app, where you can:

    • Monitor the metrics you care about
    • View and reply to reviews
    • Monitor and manage your apps across tracks and releases
    • Manage your app’s orders and issue refunds
    • Receive messages from Google Play

Protecting your business with the Play Integrity API

Over the last few years, we’ve continued to invest in the Play Integrity API to ensure that users experience your apps and games the way you intend.

Today, we’re announcing several major updates, including:

    • Low-latency Play Integrity API standard requests are leaving beta and becoming available to all developers, giving you integrity verdicts that are 10X faster
    • A new opt-in Play Protect signal checks whether Play Protect is on or off and whether any known malware is detected
    • A new Play Integrity API report and improved controls in Play Console helps you spot issues and adapt your anti-abuse strategy with an analysis and breakdown of API responses across your install base
    • SDK providers now have the option to set up and manage their Play Integrity API integration using the Google Play SDK Console, giving them control over their quota and letting them customize API responses

We hope you take advantage of all these new features to continue growing your businesses on Google Play. Please continue sharing your feedback so we can build the tools you need to power your growth. Thank you for being part of the Google Play community.


*Google Play Games on PC is available to download in 122 countries as of Nov 15, 2023.
Please see g.co/googleplaygames for more information. Game titles may vary by region.

Google Play Games on PC brings new features to accelerate growth

Posted by Arjun Dayal, Director, Google Play Games


Since we launched Google Play Games on PC beta last year, the product has seen a tremendous amount of growth. Now offering over 3,000 titles, Google Play Games on PC currently reaches users in more than 120 countries, providing a wide range of games across genres for players to enjoy. Our catalog continues to grow with popular mobile titles including Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Free Fire MAX, and Angry Birds 2 available today*.

We’ve been engaging with our amazing community of players and have been focused on increasing the quality of the gaming experience by adding new gameplay capabilities. We’ve recently added support for microphones and popular game controllers, as well as provided dynamic display options that let players select a screen resolution up to 4K.

CookieRun: Tower of Adventures with game controller support
Preview of CookieRun: Tower of Adventures with game controller support

We’ve also streamlined the user install journey for Google Play Games on PC to make game discovery easier. When a user visits the Play Store from a Windows PC, the games homepage will now showcase PC optimized games that can be installed directly on their PC.

Play store web version details page

We’re excited to bring more features to Google Play Games on PC to our growing community of players and unlock opportunities for developers to expand their reach. If you’re ready to make Google Play Games on PC a part of your growth strategy, learn more about new features and optimization guides from our developer site.


Windows is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.
*Google Play Games on PC is available to download in 122 countries as of Nov 15, 2023.
Please see g.co/googleplaygames for more information. Game titles may vary by region.

Ensuring high-quality apps on Google Play

Posted by Kobi Gluck, Director of Product Management, Google Play

Every day, Google Play helps billions of people around the world discover engaging, helpful, and enriching experiences on their devices. Maintaining consistently high app quality across these experiences is our top priority, which is why we continuously invest in new tools, features, and programs to help developers deliver the best apps and games.

Previously, we’ve highlighted our efforts to amplify the highest-quality apps on Google Play, as well as steer users away from lower-quality ones. Today, we’re sharing an update on this work and introducing some new policies and programs to boost app quality across the platform and connect people with experiences they’ll love, wherever they are, on whatever device they’re using.

Helping existing developers comply with our updated verification requirements

Earlier this year, we announced that all developers must meet an expanded set of verification requirements before publishing apps on Google Play, to help users make informed choices, prevent the spread of malware, and reduce fraud. We’ve already rolled out the requirements for developers creating new Play Console developer accounts.

Today, we're sharing how developers with existing accounts can complete these verifications to comply with the updated Play Console requirements policy. We know that developers of different types and sizes have different priorities, and that it might take some developers longer to verify than others. Because of this, we're allowing you to choose your own deadline by which to complete account verification.

Starting today, you can choose your preferred deadline in Play Console. Deadlines are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so choose your deadline early to guarantee a timeframe that works for you. If you don't choose a deadline before February 29, 2024, we'll assign one for you automatically.

Screenshot of 'choose your preferred account verification deadline now' prompt in Google Play Console

Required app testing for all new personal developer accounts

Developers who regularly use Play’s app testing tools before publishing release higher-quality apps and games, which can lead to higher ratings and more success on Google Play. In fact, apps that use our testing tools have on average 3 times the amount of app installs and user engagement compared to those that don't.

To help developers reap these benefits, developers with newly created personal Play Console accounts will soon be required to test their apps with at least 20 people for a minimum of two weeks before applying for access to production. This will allow developers to test their app, identify issues, get feedback, and ensure that everything is ready before they launch. Developers who create new personal developer accounts will start seeing this requirement in Play Console in the coming days.

Increased investment in app review

As more developers use new technologies in their mobile apps, apps on Play are becoming more sophisticated — but so are abuse methodologies. To ensure we continue to provide a safe and trusted experience, our global review teams now spend more time assessing new apps to make sure they provide a valuable user experience that does not deceive or defraud users, either via the app or off-Play activity, and complies with our policies.

While we do not anticipate significant changes to our overall app review timelines, it may take us longer to review a small portion of apps, such as apps designed for children or that request certain device permissions. These deeper reviews help ensure that users are engaging in safe and trusted experiences through Google Play.

Connecting users to great, trustworthy apps

Given the global reach and regional diversity of the Android ecosystem, it’s important that every Play user can easily discover the best content for their needs and not be limited to a single recommendation. To continue providing great content for users that rewards developer investment in quality, we’ve already begun:

    • Providing users with information on whether an app may not perform as well on their device, including phones, large screens, and wearables and
    • Surfacing more high-quality local and regional content

Next year, we’ll add new signifiers to app listings to help users find what they’re looking for, starting with a badge identifying official government apps.

All of these changes are designed to help connect people with safe, high-quality, useful, and relevant experiences they’ll love, wherever they are and on whatever device they’re using. Thank you for your ongoing investment in the quality of your user experiences. We look forward to continuing to provide you with the platform that helps you supercharge your growth and success.

More ways for users to identify independently security tested apps on Google Play

Posted by Nataliya Stanetsky, Android Security and Privacy Team

Keeping Google Play safe for users and developers remains a top priority for Google. As users increasingly prioritize their digital privacy and security, we continue to invest in our Data Safety section and transparency labeling efforts to help users make more informed choices about the apps they use.

Research shows that transparent security labeling plays a crucial role in consumer risk perception, building trust, and influencing product purchasing decisions. We believe the same principles apply for labeling and badging in the Google Play store. The transparency of an app’s data security and privacy play a key role in a user’s decision to download, trust, and use an app.

Highlighting Independently Security Tested VPN Apps

Last year, App Defense Alliance (ADA) introduced MASA (Mobile App Security Assessment), which allows developers to have their apps independently validated against a global security standard. This signals to users that an independent third-party has validated that the developers designed their apps to meet these industry mobile security and privacy minimum best practices and the developers are going the extra mile to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities. This, in turn, makes it harder for attackers to reach users' devices and improves app quality across the ecosystem. Upon completion of the successful validation, Google Play gives developers the option to declare an “Independent security review” badge in its Data Safety section, as shown in the image below. While certification to baseline security standards does not imply that a product is free of vulnerabilities, the badge associated with these validated apps helps users see at-a-glance that a developer has prioritized security and privacy practices and committed to user safety.

To help give users a simplified view of which apps have undergone an independent security validation, we’re introducing a new Google Play store banner for specific app types, starting with VPN apps. We’ve launched this banner beginning with VPN apps due to the sensitive and significant amount of user data these apps handle. When a user searches for VPN apps, they will now see a banner at the top of Google Play that educates them about the “Independent security review” badge in the Data Safety Section. Users also have the ability to “Learn More”, which redirects them to the App Validation Directory, a centralized place to view all VPN apps that have been independently security reviewed. Users can also discover additional technical assessment details in the App Validation Directory, helping them to make more informed decisions about what VPN apps to download, use, and trust with their data.

VPN providers such as NordVPN, Google One, ExpressVPN, and others have already undergone independent security testing and publicly declared the badge showing their good standing with the MASA program. We encourage and anticipate additional VPN app developers to undergo independent security testing, bringing even more transparency to users. If you are a VPN developer and interested in learning more about this feature, please submit this form.

Our Commitment to App Security and Privacy Transparency on Google Play

By encouraging independent security testing and displaying security badges for validated apps, we highlight developers who prioritize user safety and data transparency. We also provide developers with app security and privacy best practices – through Play PolicyBytes videos, webinars, blog posts, the Developer Help Community, and other resources – in accordance with our developer policies that help keep Google Play safe. We are continually working on improvements to our app review process, policies, and programs to keep users safe and to help developers navigate our policies with ease. To learn more about how we give developers the tools to succeed while keeping users safe on Google Play, read the Google Safety Center article.

Our efforts to prioritize security and privacy transparency on Google Play are aligned with the needs and expectations we’ve heard from both users and developers. We believe that by prioritizing initiatives that bolster user safety and trust, we can foster a thriving app ecosystem where users can make more informed app decisions and developers are encouraged to uphold the highest standards of security and privacy.

#WeArePlay | Meet Geraldo from Utah. More stories from around the world.

Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer Marketing

Another month, another series of #WeArePlay stories from apps and games we all love. From a Salt Lake City-based music editing app to successful game studios from Indonesia, Uruguay and Türkiye - discover the inspiring founders behind them.

This time we’re starting in the US with Geraldo. Inspired by his mom’s studies in computer engineering, he decided to start his own tech company at just 16 years of age. But he was also a keen musician and merged both his passions in Moises, alongside childhood friend and co-founder Eddie. The app uses artificial intelligence to remove vocals and instruments from any song. Geraldo describes the process as like “getting a smoothie and removing only the banana” – complex, to say the least, but Moises makes it easy. He hopes “to democratize access to cutting edge audio tools for everyday musicians.”

#WeArePlay Diori & Agung MINIMO South Tangerang Indonesia g.co/play/weareplay Google Play

Next up, we’re crossing the Pacific over to Indonesia where colleagues and game enthusiasts Diori and Agung decided to collaborate outside of the office on their own independent project. This culminated in the launch of their studio, Minimo, with their most successful game, Mini Racing Adventures, accumulating over 38 million downloads to date. The pair channeled Agung’s passion for cars and mechanics into this particular release, but next they’re shifting genres and working on a new shooter game.

#WeArePlay Pablo & Gonzalo Ironhide Game Studio Montevideo Uruguay g.co/play/weareplay Google Play

Now we’re heading down to Uruguay where friends Pablo, Gonzalo and Alvaro had a dream of making games for a living and created Ironhide Game Studio in 2010, learning how to code for mobiles from scratch. As Pablo puts it: “Over the years we’ve realized that what we have is special, because we have the passion, but we also work really hard. This has allowed us to create something great.” Their popular title, Kingdom Rush: Tower Defence, is a strategy game set in a medieval settlement and chock-full of action-filled battles. Looking to the future, they’re hoping to branch into multiplayer games and expand their Kingdom Rush saga.

#WeArePlay Remi, Mithat, Rina, Fuat & Barkin SPYKE GAMES Instanbul Türkiye g.co/play/weareplay Google Play

And finally we’re crossing over to Europe to meet Rina. While working in private equity and meeting an array of business heads, she was inspired to pursue an entrepreneurial path herself. Seeing how popular gaming was becoming, Rina delved into creating titles for a Turkish audience. She struck gold with her first studio becoming a tech unicorn, and soon followed it up with Spyke Games, launched alongside her brother Remi and friends Mithat, Barkin and Fuat. Their title Tile Busters combine social multiplayer fun and skill-based puzzle solving. Soon, they’re releasing a follow-up, Blitz Busters, keeping their goal of being “great content developers creating games that people crave more of.”

Discover more global #WeArePlay stories and share your favorites.



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#WeArePlay | Meet Geraldo from Utah. More stories from around the world.

Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer Marketing

Another month, another series of #WeArePlay stories from apps and games we all love. From a Salt Lake City-based music editing app to successful game studios from Indonesia, Uruguay and Türkiye - discover the inspiring founders behind them.

This time we’re starting in the US with Geraldo. Inspired by his mom’s studies in computer engineering, he decided to start his own tech company at just 16 years of age. But he was also a keen musician and merged both his passions in Moises, alongside childhood friend and co-founder Eddie. The app uses artificial intelligence to remove vocals and instruments from any song. Geraldo describes the process as like “getting a smoothie and removing only the banana” – complex, to say the least, but Moises makes it easy. He hopes “to democratize access to cutting edge audio tools for everyday musicians.”

#WeArePlay Diori & Agung MINIMO South Tangerang Indonesia g.co/play/weareplay Google Play

Next up, we’re crossing the Pacific over to Indonesia where colleagues and game enthusiasts Diori and Agung decided to collaborate outside of the office on their own independent project. This culminated in the launch of their studio, Minimo, with their most successful game, Mini Racing Adventures, accumulating over 38 million downloads to date. The pair channeled Agung’s passion for cars and mechanics into this particular release, but next they’re shifting genres and working on a new shooter game.

#WeArePlay Pablo & Gonzalo Ironhide Game Studio Montevideo Uruguay g.co/play/weareplay Google Play

Now we’re heading down to Uruguay where friends Pablo, Gonzalo and Alvaro had a dream of making games for a living and created Ironhide Game Studio in 2010, learning how to code for mobiles from scratch. As Pablo puts it: “Over the years we’ve realized that what we have is special, because we have the passion, but we also work really hard. This has allowed us to create something great.” Their popular title, Kingdom Rush: Tower Defence, is a strategy game set in a medieval settlement and chock-full of action-filled battles. Looking to the future, they’re hoping to branch into multiplayer games and expand their Kingdom Rush saga.

#WeArePlay Remi, Mithat, Rina, Fuat & Barkin SPYKE GAMES Instanbul Türkiye g.co/play/weareplay Google Play

And finally we’re crossing over to Europe to meet Rina. While working in private equity and meeting an array of business heads, she was inspired to pursue an entrepreneurial path herself. Seeing how popular gaming was becoming, Rina delved into creating titles for a Turkish audience. She struck gold with her first studio becoming a tech unicorn, and soon followed it up with Spyke Games, launched alongside her brother Remi and friends Mithat, Barkin and Fuat. Their title Tile Busters combine social multiplayer fun and skill-based puzzle solving. Soon, they’re releasing a follow-up, Blitz Busters, keeping their goal of being “great content developers creating games that people crave more of.”

Discover more global #WeArePlay stories and share your favorites.



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