Tag Archives: Google Play

Meet Google Play Billing Library Version 3

Posted by Steve Hartford, Product Manager, Google Play

Google Play is committed to a healthy ecosystem, where developers succeed by creating high-quality apps that users love. Many developers realize that success using Google Play’s one-time purchase and subscription services. Over the last decade, we’ve improved the purchase experience for Android users with features like paying via carrier billing (with over 180 supported carriers today), and tools to budget expenses and easily manage subscriptions.

We’re furthering these efforts with the launch of Billing Library version 3. Now available, this newest version includes new ways users can pay, subscription promotion capabilities, purchase attribution for games, and improvements to purchase reliability and security. Starting August 2, 2021, all new apps must use Billing Library version 3 or newer. By November 1, 2021, all updates to existing apps must use Billing Library version 3 or newer.

Paying with Cash

We continuously work to ensure users worldwide can pay for your one-time purchases and subscriptions in a way that’s comfortable and convenient.

Cash remains the most widely used payment method globally with 2.7 trillion transactions across all goods and services in 2018 (Source: Euromonitor). Last year we previewed a new payment method in which the transaction is completed off-device, such as paying with cash at a local convenience store. According to World Bank, two billion people worldwide do not have access to a bank account, so these pending transactions can help unlock new buyers, especially in emerging markets where cash is a popular form of payment.

Today we’re announcing users can easily pay for one-time purchases with cash in Indonesia and Malaysia at over 50,000 locations, including at leading retailers such as 7-Eleven and Alfamart. Pending transactions will be available soon for all developers.

Cash Purchases using Billing Library 3

Cash Purchases using Billing Library 3

More places for users to discover and purchase

Billing Library version 3 unlocks the ability for users to discover and purchase items outside of your app, such as across the Play store. One example is the new frictionless subscription promo code redemption experience. Now when you offer promo codes for subscription free trials, users can easily redeem them in the Play store - even if your app isn’t installed yet. It’s a simple redeem, subscribe and install experience that reduces the effort required for users to get going.

Purchase Attribution

Many games and apps need to ensure in-app purchases are attributed to a specific in-game character, avatar, or profile. Billing Library now allows you to specify this information when launching the purchase flow. After the purchase completes, you can retrieve the information and correctly attribute the purchase. This removes the need to build a custom solution using the deprecated AIDL developer payload.

Billing Library Version Requirements

Just like Play’s TargetSDK requirements, it’s important that all users are able to benefit from any security, performance, and user experience improvements in new versions of Billing Library. At Google I/O in 2019, we released Billing Library version 2 and announced changes including a two-year support window for each major release.

This means starting August 2, 2021, all new apps must use Billing Library version 3 or newer. By November 1, 2021, all updates to existing apps must use Billing Library version 3 or newer.

After these dates, you won’t be able to publish apps that use older AIDL, Billing Library version 1 or Billing Library version 2 integrations. Apps already in the Play Store can continue to be downloaded and will process in-app purchases. Any subsequent app upgrades, however, will require Billing Library version 3 or newer.

Billing Library version support

Billing Library version support

Availability

Billing Library version 3 is available today for all game and app developers in Java and Kotlin flavors. For game developers using Unity, we also launched a Billing Library 3-based Unity IAP plugin. This plugin allows Unity developers to meet the Billing Library version requirements and access all Play billing features.

Please upgrade any billing-related SDKs and libraries to versions supporting Billing Library version 3. Reach out to the SDK or library owner if one is not available. We’re working with top providers on their Billing Library version 3 compatibility.

Next Steps

While we recommend upgrading annually, we will be supporting each major release for two years. We recommend developers use Billing Library version 3 today for all new apps, and migrate existing billing integrations as soon as feasible - well ahead of the 2021 deadlines.

For developers who haven’t moved to Billing Library, we realize the transition from AIDL can be non-trivial for existing apps, and we want to help make the move as smooth as possible. We’ve created a migration guide for apps currently using AIDL, and there’s also a video walkthrough.

We’ve also updated our documentation - including guides for purchase attribution, using promo codes, and fighting abuse. Please let us know about any implementation issues - here’s how to contact us.

For details on all the Play Commerce platform improvements, watch our “What’s New” video session.

We’re looking forward to working with you to deliver great purchase experiences in your apps and games.

What’s new in Android gaming

Posted by Greg Hartrell, Head of Product Management, Games on Android & Google Play



Android logo in gaming background within a mobile phone.

In March of this year, at the Google for Games Developer Summit, we shared several new tools and services Google has been working on to help game developers. They make it easier to see how your Android games are performing, expand your reach to more devices and new audiences, and support your go-to-market with Google Play. From the level of interest shown by game developers and the great feedback provided in our developer previews, we’re excited to share the progress we’ve made on these tools, and more.

Discover more about these updates below, and in addition to these, we’ll be back August 17-21, 2020 with even more information during a full week dedicated to Android gaming products, as part of #11WeeksOfAndroid.



Android tools for mobile game development

To support you in building a great Android game, we’re working on tools that help improve productivity and overall game performance. Learn about new updates you can start using today.
  • ADB Incremental in Android 11 addresses the slow install speeds you may face when installing very large APKs (2GB+) with ADB (Android Debug Bridge) during game development. Accelerate APK installs up to 10x when using an Android 11 device with this new update to ADB. Download as a part of the Android 11 Developer Preview SDK.
  • Apply for access to our continued developer previews, including the Android Game Development Extension for cross-platform developers targeting Android with their C++ game engine and the Android GPU Inspector, a profiling tool that helps you look into the GPU of Android devices and optimize the graphical performance of games. Download the Android Studio Profilers, with updates including an expanded set of profilers and standalone profilers, available in the Android Studio 4.1 preview.




Reach more devices & users

To provide greater insights into your game’s performance and help scale your games to reach a growing player-base across the Android ecosystem, we’ve seen growing success with the adoption of Play’s dynamic delivery of game assets as well as our Integrity Protection Suite. Read on for additional launches and updates.

  • Android Performance Tuner now in general availability: Deliver better experiences to more users. Measure your frame rate performance and graphical fidelity, and optimize between them to achieve stable frame rates at scale across the whole Android device ecosystem. Learn how to integrate the Unity plug-in or do a custom integration.
  • We’ve made updates to the Android Game SDK, now available on Jetpack, making it easier to integrate. As part of our ongoing efforts to support developers building Android games on any game engine, check out the new Google Play Plugins for Unity workflow improvement, and enhancements to Unreal Engine, including built-in support for Android App Bundles, Play Asset Delivery, Android Frame Pacing, and Play Billing Library.




Reach more devices and win go-to-market

We’ve completely redesigned the Google Play Console making it easier for you to improve your app’s quality, engage your audience, earn revenue, and more. We’re also continuing to improve the Google Play Store and other services allowing you to better market your game to expanded audiences.

  • Console 2020: The Google Play Console has been redesigned with a clearer, smarter, and more helpful developer experience. This includes an overhauled pre-launch workflow and the release of auto install for pre-registration campaigns to help you maximize early installs. Join the beta and share feedback.
  • Instant play games: Introducing a new way to reach 100s of millions of new gamers by publishing an 'Instant play' game in the Play Games app. Submit your game to be eligible for featuring.
  • Google Play Game Services - Friends: We’ve built a new friends system to help players easily find and play with friends across Android games. Bootstrap your in-game friend networks and have your game surfaced in new clusters in the Play Games app. Apply now for the preview.

We hope you start using some of these new tools and features, and continue to share your feedback with our development teams. You can learn about all of the offerings we have to help game developers at d.android.com/games.





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Introducing the new Google Play Console beta

Posted by Tom Grinsted, Product Manager, Google Play Console

Over the years, we’ve seen our community grow to well over a million developers, from one-person shops to companies with hundreds of Google Play Console users. As you’ve grown, Play Console has grown with you. But as we added new features to keep up with your changing needs, Play Console became increasingly busy and a little difficult to navigate. So we’ve redesigned it from the ground up to ensure it continues to help you grow your business on Google Play for years to come.

Today, you can try out the new Google Play Console by joining the beta. Visit Play Console at its new home: play.google.com/console

We’ve designed the new Play Console to be more helpful. Now you can:

  • More easily find, discover, and understand important features
  • Get new guidance on policy changes, release status, advice, and user feedback
  • Better understand performance insights with new acquisition reports
  • Inspect each of your app bundles and understand how Google Play optimizes artifacts for your users
  • Safely enable everyone on your team to use our features with new user management options.

On behalf of the whole team at Google Play, I’m excited to share the beta with you and to get your feedback. Many thanks to the hundreds of developers who have already provided feedback — your input helps us improve Play Console for the entire developer community.

Clearer and easier to use

The new Google Play Console is built on Google Material, the UI design system for all Google-branded products. This brings a number of advantages as explained by the project’s lead designer, Jesse Orme:

“This design system is easier to read and scan, using typography and space to delineate sections and enable clear information hierarchy. A consistent and considered set of styles and components ensure that features are as easy and intuitive to use as possible, even if you’re new to them."

The new Play Console is also responsive, so you can use it across your devices, at home, at work, or when you’re on the move. The responsive design also supports right-to-left languages including Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew. The team is putting the finishing touches on our mobile layouts now, so these features will roll out to the beta in the coming weeks.

New navigation

Because many Play Console users can be domain specialists like Growth Managers or QAs, we’ve designed the new navigation to reflect how you work, making it easier to find all the tools for your job.

The navigation groups related features based on what you want to achieve. For instance, all of your acquisition setup, reporting, and optimization tools are now collected in a single “Grow” section. We’re also adding a search feature to the beta soon, so you can jump to specific features or pages more quickly.

Google Play Console navigation

The new navigation organizes features based on your goals

Similarly, we’ve made the distinction between your production track and your internal, closed, and open testing tracks much clearer. This reflects best practices and will make it easier for your team to understand the status of app’s tracks at a glance so you can release with confidence.

Clearer overviews

The new releases overview gives you a snapshot of all your tracks, so now you can see information about your internal, closed, and open testing tracks, as well as your production track. Quickly see how many users are testing your app or the latest countries you’ve rolled out to.

Releases overview on Play Console

The new Releases overview lets you see information about all your tracks at a glance

Easier publishing

We've renamed Timed Publishing to Managed Publishing. Use it to see a summary of your changes that are in review and control when to publish on Google Play. Managed Publishing also helps you understand all the changes that have been submitted across your releases, store listings, and more. For those of you with larger teams, you can now review and coordinate all your changes in one place so everything is published at the same time.

Managed Publishing on Google Play Console

Submit your updates for review and launch them when you’re ready with Managed Publishing

The Artifact library has evolved into the new App Bundle Explorer, which you can find in the “Release” section. You can inspect the app bundles you’ve uploaded to Play and understand how Google Play processes them to generate optimized serving artifacts. Download everything Play generates, including APKs for pre-installing on devices and standalone APKs, access an install link for historical versions for testing purposes, and see detailed dynamic delivery information.

And when you’re launching a new app, check out our new guided setup to help you get to production with confidence.

Set up your app on Google Play Console

Guided setup includes best practices to help you get to production with confidence

More ways to get the answers you need, fast

Important information is now even easier to find, with more ways to get the answers you need, right when you need them.

Clearer policy and compliance information

The new Policy status and App content sections make it easier for you to provide information Google Play needs to confirm that your apps are compliant with our policies, and to quickly see if there’s an issue that needs addressing. We know this can be a source of worry, so we designed these new sections to help guide you through the process, and they will continue to grow over time.

App content section on Google Play Console

The App content section makes it easier to provide the information Google Play needs to confirm that your apps comply with our policies

Inbox

Rolling out soon, the new Play Console Inbox collects everything we think you’ll need to know about your apps and games. Never miss an important message, update, recommendation, or milestone.

new Google Play Console Inbox

Find important messages about your apps and games in the new Play Console Inbox

Easier education

Many of you told us that you don’t feel like you’re using the full capabilities of Google Play Console because you’re not sure what features are available or how best to use them. To help, key features now include educational pages to help your teams understand their value and how to add them to your workflows. These also serve as a hub for related information, like our comprehensive documentation on the Help Center, Play Academy courses, developer case studies, and more.

Play Console Statistics educational pages

Educational pages help you understand key features and and how to add them to your workflows

These pages can be accessed without a Play Console account so you can easily share them.

Visit the new educational pages at play.google.com/console/about

Understanding your performance

Many of you told us that you value Google Play Console’s acquisition reports because they help you understand the impact of your store listing optimization and marketing investment. But you also told us that the current report made it challenging to see how your performance was trending over time, and you wanted to analyze performance across multiple dimensions together, such as country and acquisition source.

The new acquisition reports focus on trend analysis, understanding relationships between metrics, and now support expanded dimensions including language, store listing, and reacquisition.

Store listing conversion analytics on Google Play Console

New filters and dimensions let you see trends by acquisition type and region to really understand your performance

Advanced filters and dimensions let you drill down by acquisition type and region to really understand your performance. For instance, did your campaign to increase organic installs in France pay off? Now you can find out.

Rolling out soon, deeply integrated benchmarks — including over 100 app and game categories, plus countries and regions — can help you identify areas for growth and where you’re leading the market.

Better, safer team management

Another area we’ve enhanced is team-member management. The new Google Play Console includes features, insights, and data to help every member of your team, from your engineers, PMs, and QAs to your marketing managers and executives. We know that granting broad access to everyone in your organization could be a challenge, with permissions that were sometimes hard to understand, and a UI that made managing large numbers of team members difficult.

We’ve updated the new team-member management area with better, more granular controls. Written in collaboration with developers, new permission names and descriptions are clearer, so you can understand what you are — and aren’t — allowing people to do. There’s clearer differentiation between global and app-level permissions, and we’ve added full user search and bulk-edit capabilities to make managing your teams easier.

Users and Permissions on Google Play Console

Safely grant your team members access to Play Console’s features with granular permission controls

We want as many people as possible to benefit from Play Console’s tools, and these changes should help you grant access with confidence.

Try the new Play Console beta today

The features above are just the beginning — every page on Google Play Console has been enhanced. Features like Pre-launch reports, Android vitals, Statistics, and Play Game Services have all been made more usable and helpful.

Visit play.google.com/console to check out the beta today. Once you do, please share your thoughts using this feedback form or in Play Console using the button on the top right. Your feedback is crucial to helping our teams build better products for you.

Thank you for being a part of our community, and we hope you enjoy the new Play Console!

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Introducing Google Play Asset Delivery

Posted by Dan Galpin, Developer Advocate

Two years ago, we introduced the Android App Bundle, a new publishing format that allows Google Play to help optimize your app delivery. The app bundle is now Play’s recommended publishing format; with almost 50% of all top apps & games already using it.

It replaces the traditional monolithic APK at publishing time, allowing you to package all of your languages, screen densities and device architectures into a single artifact. The bundle itself can't be installed; Play takes care of generating APKs optimized for each requesting device from the single bundle that you publish.

Dynamic Delivery with App Bundle Produces Optimized APKs

Dynamic Delivery with App Bundle Produces Optimized APKs

Apps have seen great success with app bundles, but games often have different delivery challenges.

Today, large Android games rely on APK Expansion Files and custom Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to deliver content. APK Expansion Files, also known as OBBs, support large resources but require you to maintain an additional publishing artifact, which causes many developer issues. Using CDNs for resource delivery often results in a suboptimal user-experience; users install and open the game just to face a long progress bar as they wait for additional resources to be downloaded. Users may also have to wait for updated resources, rather than having them delivered as part of the game auto-update. Finally, CDNs usually aren’t free, so this way of delivering game assets also involves extra cost that needs to be accounted for.

To handle the unique needs of games, Play is introducing Play Asset Delivery, giving you dynamic delivery of the right game assets to the right devices at the right time at no additional cost. To achieve this, we extended the Android App Bundle publishing format by adding asset packs.

The contents of an Android App Bundle with one base module, two dynamic feature modules, and two asset packs.

The contents of an Android App Bundle with one base module, two dynamic feature modules, and two asset packs.

Asset packs contain non-code game content such as textures, materials, and sounds. They are served from Google Play with large size limits that are ideal for games, and you can customize how and when each asset pack is downloaded onto a device.

Keeping assets up-to-date

Play Asset Delivery (PAD) lets you rely on Google Play to take care of updating your assets, just like it does with your game binary. When your app auto updates, the entire game gets updated, including all assets. When your users open the game, they will already have the freshest binary and assets, and they won’t need to wait for resources to get updated. Play also takes care of delta patching for you, minimizing the download size and the update time.

To handle cases when the user opens the game before it has had a chance to update, you can trigger updates within the context of your game with our In-App Updates API.

Play Asset Delivery engine support

  • Version 4.25 of Unreal engine supports building App Bundles with asset packs instead of APK expansion files and includes a plugin that provides function calls for managing downloads and requesting information from Play Asset Delivery.
  • We have built a Unity plugin that takes care of packaging your Unity Asset Bundles into asset packs and lets you build an Android App Bundle that includes them. The plugin is now available in our Package Registry and is compatible with Unity 2017.4 and higher.
  • For other engines, that Android Gradle plugin 4.0 release lets you combine your asset packs and your binary into an App Bundle. Just update your gradle plugin version and configure the delivery mode in the build.gradle file for each individual asset pack.

Customizing when asset packs are installed

You can customize when asset packs are installed according to three delivery modes: install-time, fast-follow, and on-demand.

  • install-time asset packs allow you to deliver up to 1GB of game assets as part of the initial game installation. To your app, this works like a large APK, with no need for expansion files or special API calls. Just package your assets in asset packs and publish to Play.
  • fast-follow asset packs are automatically downloaded as soon as the app is installed, allowing the user to start playing while important assets are still downloading. The app doesn't have to be opened for the download to start.
  • on-demand asset packs are downloaded upon request by the app.

Both on-demand and fast-follow assets are delivered as raw files and placed in your game’s internal storage. You can track download progress with the PAD API and access the assets directly using file system calls.

Extending Android App Bundle for Games

When using Play Asset Delivery, you get to take advantage of the App Bundle format, which allows Play to optimize the binary for the device, making it easier to support both 64-bit and 32-bit devices and different CPU architectures such as ARM and X86. We also want to help you serve the optimal set of assets to each device, and the first step in this direction is texture compression format targeting.

In an upcoming release of Play Asset Delivery, you'll be able to package textures in multiple texture compression formats, relying on Play to serve optimal assets per device model. This means you won't need to compromise by using suboptimal texture compression formats, and your users will always get the best assets suitable for their device without wasting network bandwidth or having suboptimal loading performance.

Better retention with an improved install experience

image of car racing from Asphalt 8 game by Gameloft

Asphalt 8 by Gameloft

Gameloft integrated Play Asset delivery into Asphalt 8, Asphalt Xtreme, and Minion Rush. Asphalt Xtreme was easy to switch from using APK expansion files to using PAD with install-time delivery. Asphalt 8 and Minion Rush both originally used a custom CDN, which Gameloft replaced with PAD. They were able to leverage fast-follow and on-demand delivery by replacing their custom CDN calls with calls to the PAD API. They saw the expected reduction in CDN costs, but with fast-follow delivery, they have also seen a significant increase in the number of users who completed the secondary download to start playing the game. This resulted in better user retention, with 10% more new players compared to their previous CDN asset delivery system. With the promising early results and seamless implementation process, Gameloft plans to use PAD in more of their upcoming releases. Read more about their experience.

Improved user experience with cost savings

Puzzle Kids - Animals Shapes and Jigsaw Puzzles game

Puzzle Kids - Animals Shapes and Jigsaw Puzzles by RV AppStudios

US-based developer RV AppStudios has over 200 million downloads to date across their portfolio of casual games, educational kids apps, and utility apps. Their Puzzle Kids app delivers over 23 MB of assets as players progress through the levels. When they switched from a third-party CDN to using Play Asset Delivery’s on-demand mode, they saw a 4.7% increase in 15-day retention and 21% reduction in crashes & ANRs. Overall, these changes helped improve the user experience by offering more stable, transparent, and secure downloads, while also saving costs for RV AppStudios. Read more about their experience.

Play Asset Delivery is available now

We're committed to helping you serve your entire game through Play with customized dynamic delivery. Play Asset Delivery, with the new app bundle format for games, along with its three delivery modes and updates + patching are all generally available. You can find documentation at d.android.com that will walk you through the integration process depending on the game engine you use.

YouTube Music is Making it Simple to Transfer Over Your Google Play Music Library

Over the past few years, we have enhanced YouTube Music to deliver a comprehensive listening experience, and have also added features to make Google Play Music users feel right at home. Starting today, we’re excited to officially begin inviting Google Play Music listeners to effortlessly transfer their music libraries, personal taste preferences and playlists to YouTube Music, their new home for music listening and discovery.
For now, users will continue to have access to both services. We want to ensure everyone has time to transfer their content and get used to YouTube Music, so we’ll provide plenty of notice ahead of users no longer having access to Google Play Music later this year.
Easy Transfer and Transition 
We know many listeners have spent a lot of time creating their perfect music and podcast libraries in Google Play Music, so we’ve made it simple to move both to their new homes. All Google Play Music users will soon receive an email with detailed instructions on how to begin transferring your full Google Play Music history and content, as well as podcasts, to their new homes.
Music fans will be able to start the transfer process of their music library to YouTube Music by following these simple steps:

  • Download the YouTube Music app (iOS/Android). 
  • Click on the transfer button in YouTube Music, and your uploads, purchases, added songs and albums, personal and subscribed playlists, likes and dislikes, curated stations and personal taste preferences will move right over. 
  • Your updated recommendations will appear immediately on the YouTube Music home screen, and we’ll notify you via email and notifications when your music library transfer is complete and your music is in the “Library” tab. 

You can also check out the video with transfer details HERE.

And if you’re a podcast listener, you can visit this web page and transfer your subscriptions and episode progress to Google Podcasts with a single click. Google Podcasts is our dedicated podcast player available for free on Android and iOS, and accessible from Google Assistant, Google Search, Google Home and more.
We’re looking forward to Google Play Music users transferring their libraries, so they can begin listening and exploring on YouTube Music and Google Podcasts.
Your New Home For Music: YouTube Music
For listeners new to YouTube Music, the streaming service is your personal guide to the world of music, simply organised in an app and web player. A bit more on what YouTube Music has to offer:

  • Catalogue: YouTube Music offers over 50 million official tracks, albums and high quality audio, as well as deep cuts, B-sides, live performances, and remixes you can’t find anywhere else. 
  • Listen everywhere: Explore YouTube Music’s audio-first music app, desktop and smart speaker experience. 
  • Recommendations: Discover new music through YouTube Music’s home screen recommendations and personalised mixes - My Mix, Discovery Mix, and New Release Mix - based on taste, location, time of day and Play Music preferences after transferring. 
  • Official Playlists: Listen to thousands of official playlists from both YouTube Music and Google Play Music. 

We’ve listened to Google Play Music user feedback and recently introduced additional new features to YouTube Music for fans to enjoy. Some of the YouTube Music features we’re most excited to share include the following (with more updates on the way!):

  • Playlist Creation: We’ve increased playlist length from 1,000 to 5,000 songs to make room for even more of your favourite songs. 
  • Uploads: You can listen to your uploaded and purchased music from Google Play Music after your transfer, or add up to 100,000 personal tracks to your library in YouTube Music (an increase of more than 50,000 compared to Google Play Music). 
  • Offline listening: Paying members can download any song, playlist, music video or let smart downloads (Android only for now) do it for you so you always have something to listen to, even when you don’t have service. 
  • Lyrics: Lyrics offer highly visible access to follow along to tracks. 
  • Explore Tab: An all-new Explore tab offering one go-to place to discover new music and YouTube Music’s vast catalogue of playlists through New Releases and Moods & Genres sections. 

Pricing 
Existing pricing is the same between Google Play Music and YouTube Music. Fans can enjoy the ad-supported version of YouTube Music for free, or enjoy YouTube Music Premium, a paid membership that gives listeners background listening, downloads and an ad-free experience for $11.99 a month. Or you can try YouTube Premium to extend ad-free, background listening and offline playback across all of YouTube for $14.99.
Google Play Music Unlimited members will be automatically granted the equivalent tier of YouTube Music Premium or YouTube Premium based on the level of benefits with their current subscription, at the same price*.
We can’t wait for you to start exploring YouTube Music features and discovering new music favourites along the way. Have more questions or need help? Check out all of our support resources here.
*Some users may see a price difference upon transfer. Learn more here.

Dear Game Changers, join our 2020 Design Challenge

Dear Game Changers,

Are you passionate about your work and ready to use your imagination to make a difference? If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to build a game of your own, tell us your idea—if you want to play it, we want to hear it.

Starting today, we’re accepting applications for our 2020 Change the Game Design Challenge. And with schools closed for the year and many of you spending extra time at home, we’re shaking things up.

This year, we revamped our Design Challenge to bring your inspiration to life. If your game idea is selected, you’ll receive an invitation to meet other game changers. Together, you’ll participate in an online game development workshop hosted by our partner Girls Make Games. Throughout four sessions, you’ll get a crash course and hands on experience turning your idea into a playable game. 

For a chance to participate in our workshop and be a part of the next generation of creators, fill out the entry form and share your original game idea. Tell us what you’re passionate about, whether it’s a hobby, a game, or your favorite book—and how you’d turn it into a game. No prior game making experience necessary. Upon completing the workshop, you’ll receive custom swag, all course materials, a certificate of completion and a shiny new Chromebook to continue your game development journey.

We’ll be reviewing entries on a rolling basis between now and July 31st. Our workshops will kick off in June and will run through the end of summer. The Design Challenge is open to U.S. residents only. For more details on submission guidelines and how to enter, please visit g.co/ctgdesignchallenge.

We can’t wait to hear from you!

See you soon,
Aude Gandon, your biggest advocate

Answers to your questions about app signing by Google Play

Posted by Dom Elliott, Product Manager, Google Play

Google Play's first priority is to build a trusted, safe, and secure platform for billions of users and millions of developers for many years into the future. The sustainability and success of the ecosystem depends on this.

As part of this goal, almost two years ago, we announced app signing by Google Play. With app signing by Google Play, Google manages and protects your app's signing key for you and uses it to sign your APKs for distribution. It’s a secure way to store your app signing key that helps protect you if your key is ever lost or compromised. If you’re not enrolled in app signing and you lose your signing key, you’ll lose the ability to update your app.

App signing by Play also enables you to publish your app or game with the Android App Bundle, the recommended publishing format in use by over 500,000 apps in production on Google Play. The Android App Bundle reduces the size of your app, simplifies your releases, and unlocks next generation distribution features such as dynamic features and dynamic asset delivery.

Developers often have questions when enrolling in app signing for the first time so my colleague has written a Medium post with answers to some frequently asked questions. Read the post to find out more about the benefits of app signing, how we protect developer keys, and to learn about features like key upgrade for new installs and the new source stamp that bundletool will start adding to apps published with app bundles to give you more peace of mind about Play-signed apps.



Stay entertained and informed from home

While spending more time at home, you might find yourself re-watching your favorite classics, doing game nights with the family and catching up on the TV shows you've been missing. From staying informed on the latest news to tuning in to weekly podcasts or finding what to watch, here are a few ideas to keep your whole family entertained while at home:

A faster way to news and entertainment

Many of us are turning to our TVs to stay up to date and entertained while we stay in. To access fresh news and fun entertainment quickly, you’ll now find three new rows from YouTube right on your Android TV home screen:

  • COVID-19 Newsgives you the latest from authoritative publishers and local health authorities to help you stay informed.
  • Stay Home #WithMe features videos that invite you to cook, listen to live music and work out, so you can stay connected, even if you’re home alone.
  • Free movies from YouTube highlights movies you can watch for free with ads, so that you can find something new.
Android-TV-News-Channel.png

Stay informed and entertained with three new rows from YouTube on the Android TV home screen.

Create your own Watchlist in Search

When you’re deciding on a TV show or movie to watch, there are a lot of options out there. And figuring out what content is available across all your subscriptions can be time consuming and overwhelming. You can already find TV and movie recommendations in Search and today we’re adding a new Watchlist tab on mobile, so that you can keep track of what to watch next.

Browse through personalized recommendations by searching “what to watch.” Then, simply tap “Watchlist” in the preview window for any show or movie to add it to your list. You can navigate between your recommendations and the “Watchlist” tab so you won’t lose track of what’s already been saved. You can also add content to your Watchlist whenever you search for a show or movie. To quickly access your full watchlist, search for “my watchlist” or tap on Collections in the Google app.

PIXEL-3_watchlist-1.png

Keep track of what to watch next with the new Watchlist in Search.

Entertainment deals you won’t want to miss

Google Play also has a collection of special deals including offers on apps for movies, TV and comics and fun ways to learn something new. If you’re looking to game with friends, you can #PlayApartTogether and explore these multiplayer games. For a throwback option, we’ve compiled a few retro arcade games to bring back childhood memories. In the U.S., we’ve also extended the free trial for Google Play Pass to 30 days to give you and your family more time to enjoy games and apps without ads or in-app purchases.
Group 3.png

Browse games to #PlayApartTogether with family and friends.

If you’re looking for apps on your big screen, Google Play is adding more collections to Android TV. Your favorite streaming apps are now organized in one row under “Stream the shows and movies you love.” You can also pick up a new hobby or skill with TV apps under “Learn new things.” If gaming on the TV is more your style, you can now find games to “Play with your remote” and “Play with your gamepad.”

Play-Games-Collections (1).png

Find games and apps in Google Play’s collections on Android TV.

We’re offering gamers in 14 countries free access to Stadia Pro for two months, which includes instant access to nine games, including GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection and Thumper. If you’re already a paid Stadia Pro subscriber, you won’t be charged for the next two months.

Get a little help using just your voice

And whether you want to catch up on your favorite podcast or you want to spend some quality time with family or roommates, Google Assistant and Nest have got you covered. 

  • Game night:If you’re looking for trivia or quiz games to play, just say, “Hey Google, let’s play a game.” Or if you already know what you want to play, say, “Hey Google, play Are You Feeling Lucky.”

  • Kick back with a podcast:Search interest in “podcasts” hit an all-time high, worldwide. Ask Google Assistant for a particular podcast by saying, “Hey Google, play [podcast name]” or it will pick one for you if you say “Hey Google, find me a podcast about cooking.” If you have a Nest Mini, Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max, the Ambient IQ feature will automatically adjust the volume when there's background noise.

  • View your home movies easily:Watch videos and slideshows you’ve made in Google Photos using Chromecast. From the Google Photos app you can send videos and pictures to your TV by tapping the cast icon. With a Google Nest speaker you can simply ask, “Hey Google, show my 2018 summer vacation video on my TV.”

Lifestyle_Chromecast_Family_Shot_24_EH-0086_noblur_rgb.png

Ask Google Assistant to cast your family photos and videos to your TV.

These updates and features are already available or coming this week. Check them out to keep the whole family entertained at home.

Source: Search


Stay entertained and informed from home

While spending more time at home, you might find yourself re-watching your favorite classics, doing game nights with the family and catching up on the TV shows you've been missing. From staying informed on the latest news to tuning in to weekly podcasts or finding what to watch, here are a few ideas to keep your whole family entertained while at home:

A faster way to news and entertainment

Many of us are turning to our TVs to stay up to date and entertained while we stay in. To access fresh news and fun entertainment quickly, you’ll now find three new rows from YouTube right on your Android TV home screen:

  • COVID-19 Newsgives you the latest from authoritative publishers and local health authorities to help you stay informed.
  • Stay Home #WithMe features videos that invite you to cook, listen to live music and work out, so you can stay connected, even if you’re home alone.
  • Free movies from YouTube highlights movies you can watch for free with ads, so that you can find something new.
Android-TV-News-Channel.png

Stay informed and entertained with three new rows from YouTube on the Android TV home screen.

Create your own Watchlist in Search

When you’re deciding on a TV show or movie to watch, there are a lot of options out there. And figuring out what content is available across all your subscriptions can be time consuming and overwhelming. You can already find TV and movie recommendations in Search and today we’re adding a new Watchlist tab on mobile, so that you can keep track of what to watch next.

Browse through personalized recommendations by searching “what to watch.” Then, simply tap “Watchlist” in the preview window for any show or movie to add it to your list. You can navigate between your recommendations and the “Watchlist” tab so you won’t lose track of what’s already been saved. You can also add content to your Watchlist whenever you search for a show or movie. To quickly access your full watchlist, search for “my watchlist” or tap on Collections in the Google app.

PIXEL-3_watchlist-1.png

Keep track of what to watch next with the new Watchlist in Search.

Entertainment deals you won’t want to miss

Google Play also has a collection of special deals including offers on apps for movies, TV and comics and fun ways to learn something new. If you’re looking to game with friends, you can #PlayApartTogether and explore these multiplayer games. For a throwback option, we’ve compiled a few retro arcade games to bring back childhood memories. In the U.S., we’ve also extended the free trial for Google Play Pass to 30 days to give you and your family more time to enjoy games and apps without ads or in-app purchases.
Group 3.png

Browse games to #PlayApartTogether with family and friends.

If you’re looking for apps on your big screen, Google Play is adding more collections to Android TV. Your favorite streaming apps are now organized in one row under “Stream the shows and movies you love.” You can also pick up a new hobby or skill with TV apps under “Learn new things.” If gaming on the TV is more your style, you can now find games to “Play with your remote” and “Play with your gamepad.”

Play-Games-Collections (1).png

Find games and apps in Google Play’s collections on Android TV.

We’re offering gamers in 14 countries free access to Stadia Pro for two months, which includes instant access to nine games, including GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection and Thumper. If you’re already a paid Stadia Pro subscriber, you won’t be charged for the next two months.

Get a little help using just your voice

And whether you want to catch up on your favorite podcast or you want to spend some quality time with family or roommates, Google Assistant and Nest have got you covered. 

  • Game night:If you’re looking for trivia or quiz games to play, just say, “Hey Google, let’s play a game.” Or if you already know what you want to play, say, “Hey Google, play Are You Feeling Lucky.”

  • Kick back with a podcast:Search interest in “podcasts” hit an all-time high, worldwide. Ask Google Assistant for a particular podcast by saying, “Hey Google, play [podcast name]” or it will pick one for you if you say “Hey Google, find me a podcast about cooking.” If you have a Nest Mini, Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max, the Ambient IQ feature will adjust the volume for you.

  • View your home movies easily:Watch videos and slideshows you’ve made in Google Photos using Chromecast. From the Google Photos app you can send videos and pictures to your TV by tapping the cast icon. With a Google Nest speaker you can simply ask, “Hey Google, show my 2018 summer vacation video on my TV.”

Lifestyle_Chromecast_Family_Shot_24_EH-0086_noblur_rgb.png

Ask Google Assistant to cast your family photos and videos to your TV.

These updates and features are already available or coming this week. Check them out to keep the whole family entertained at home.

Building user trust through more transparent subscriptions

Posted by Angela Ying, Product Manager, Google Play

For many developers, subscriptions are an important part of your business. Google Play has continued to support the growth of subscription offerings through developer tools such as new insights in the Google Play Console, and an improved user experience, including the subscriptions center, where users can easily manage all of their subscriptions. Part of improving the subscription user experience comes from fostering a trustworthy platform for subscribers; making sure they feel fully informed when they purchase in-app subscriptions.

To continue to build this trust, we announced an updated subscriptions policy today, as part of a broader policy update to build user trust and enhance user safety across Google Play. This new policy requires you to be transparent about your subscription offering, to ensure every user evaluating your service has an informed choice.

When users lose trust in your app due to unclear subscription offers, they unsubscribe and often leave negative reviews, ultimately hurting your business. On the other hand, a clear and compelling offer gives users all the information they need to make a decision, increasing their trust in your service and hopefully encouraging them to stick around for a long time.

Complying with our subscriptions policy

App with clear offer terms, billing frequency, and price. App with hidden terms, unclear billing frequency and price.

The goal of this policy update is to ensure users understand the subscription offer, the terms of free trials and introductory offers, and how to manage their subscription, including cancellation. You can read the full policy and see examples of best practices and common violations in the Policy Center, but the most important thing is to make sure you are clear about your subscription offering within your app. Consider the following best practices:

Be explicit about your subscription terms, such as:

  • Whether a subscription is required to use all or parts of the app. If a subscription is not required, users should be able to easily dismiss your subscription offer.
  • Cost of your subscription
  • Frequency of your billing cycle.

If you offer free trials and introductory offers, clearly and accurately tell users:

  • Duration
  • Pricing
  • What is included with free trial or introductory offer
  • When a free trial will convert to a paid subscription
  • How a user can cancel if they do not want to convert to a paid subscription.

Ensure your app clearly discloses how a subscriber can cancel and/or manage a subscription.

You have until June 16, 2020 to bring your existing apps into compliance with this policy.

A better user experience without additional development work for you

In conjunction with these policy updates, we’ve made several platform-level product changes to help increase user trust and build user confidence in subscribing.

  • We made improvements to the checkout cart to increase transparency and improve the user experience.
  • We now email users a reminder before their free trial or intro price ends.
  • We now email users subscribed to 3-month, 6-month or annual plans a reminder when their renewal is coming up.
  • We notify active subscribers who uninstall the app that uninstalling does not automatically unsubscribe them from the service.

We believe that although these changes may lead to fewer conversions or more subscription cancelations in the short term, they will also result in higher quality, more committed subscribers with lower refund and chargeback rates. Overall, this should result in a more stable recurring revenue.

Resources to help

We want to help you do the right thing for your subscribers, so we’ve created this checklist, video and training in Google Play’s Academy for App Success to use as a reference when you’re making any necessary app updates.

Thank you for continuing to partner with us to make Google Play a trustworthy platform for you and your users. Not only can we work together to create great experiences for users, but we can continue to grow subscription businesses as well.

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