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Posted by Edward Cunningham, Product Manager, Android

Google Play powers billions of app installs and updates annually. We relentlessly focus on security and performance to ensure everyone has a positive experience discovering and installing apps and games they love. Today we're giving Android developers a heads-up about three changes designed to support these goals, as well as explaining the reasons for each change, and how they will help make Android devices even more secure and performant for the long term.

In the second half of 2018, Play will require that new apps and app updates target a recent Android API level. This will be required for new apps in August 2018, and for updates to existing apps in November 2018. This is to ensure apps are built on the latest APIs optimized for security and performance.
In August 2019, Play will require that new apps and app updates with native libraries provide 64-bit versions in addition to their 32-bit versions.
Additionally, in early 2018, Play will start adding a small amount of security metadata on top of each APK to further verify app authenticity. You do not need to take any action for this change.

We deeply appreciate our developer ecosystem, and so hope this long advance notice is helpful in planning your app releases. We will continue to provide reminders and share developer resources as key dates approach to help you prepare.

Target API level requirement from late 2018

API behavior changes advance the security and privacy protections of Android – helping developers secure their apps and protecting people from malware. Here are a few such changes from recent platform versions:

Implicit intents for bindService() no longer supported (Android 5.0)
Runtime permissions (Android 6.0)
User-added CAs not trusted by default for secure connections (Android 7.0)
Apps can't access user accounts without explicit user approval (Android 8.0)

Many of these changes only apply to apps that explicitly declare their support for new API behaviors, through the targetSdkVersion manifest attribute. For example, only apps with a targetSdkVersion of 23 (the API level of Android 6.0) or higher give the user full control over what private data – such as contacts or location – the app can access via runtime permissions. Similarly, recent releases include user experience improvements that prevent apps from accidentally overusing resources like battery and memory; background execution limits is a good example of this type of improvement.

In order to provide users with the best Android experience possible, the Google Play Console will require that apps target a recent API level:

August 2018: New apps required to target API level 26 (Android 8.0) or higher.
November 2018: Updates to existing apps required to target API level 26 or higher.
2019 onwards: Each year the targetSdkVersion requirement will advance. Within one year following each Android dessert release, new apps and app updates will need to target the corresponding API level or higher.

Existing apps that are not receiving updates are unaffected. Developers remain free to use a minSdkVersion of their choice, so there is no change to your ability to build apps for older Android versions. We encourage developers to provide backwards compatibility as far as reasonably possible. Future Android versions will also restrict apps that don't target a recent API level and adversely impact performance or security. We want to proactively reduce fragmentation in the app ecosystem and ensure apps are secure and performant while providing developers with a long window and plenty of notice in order to plan ahead.

This year we released Android Oreo, the most secure and best performing version of Android yet, and we introduced Project Treble to help the latest releases reach devices faster. Get started building apps that target Android 8.1 Oreo today.

64-bit support requirement in 2019

Platform support for 64-bit architectures was introduced in Android 5.0. Today, over 40% of Android devices coming online have 64-bit support, while still maintaining 32-bit compatibility. For apps that use native libraries, 64-bit code typically offers significantly better performance, with additional registers and new instructions.

In anticipation of future Android devices that support 64-bit code only, the Play Console will require that new apps and app updates are able to run on devices without 32-bit support. Apps that include a 32-bit library will need to have a 64-bit alternative – either within the same APK or as one of the multiple APKs published. Apps that do not include native code are unaffected.

This change will come into effect in August 2019. We're providing advance notice today to allow plenty of time for developers who don't yet support 64-bit to plan the transition. Stay tuned for a future post in which we'll take an in-depth look at the performance benefits of 64-bit native libraries on Android, and check out the CPUs and Architectures guide of the NDK for more info.

Security metadata in early 2018

Next year we'll begin adding a small amount of security metadata on top of each APK to verify that it was officially distributed by Google Play. Often when you buy a physical product, you'll find an official label or a badge which signifies the product's authenticity. The metadata we're adding to APKs is like a Play badge of authenticity for your Android app.

No action is needed by developers or users. We'll adjust Play's maximum APK size to take into account the small metadata addition, which is inserted into the APK Signing Block and does not alter the functionality of your app. In addition to enhancing the integrity of Play's mobile app ecosystem, this metadata will enable new distribution opportunities for developers in the future and help more people keep their apps up to date.

Looking ahead

2017 has been a fantastic year for developers who have seen growth and success on Google Play. We've been hard at work on features (including those announced at I/O 2017 and at Playtime) to help you improve your app quality and business performance. With these features and the upcoming updates, we hope to see the Android and Play ecosystem continue to thrive in 2018 and beyond.

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Source: Android Developers Blog

Posted by Vineet Buch, Director of Product Management, Google Play Apps & Games

Today we kicked off our annual global Playtime series with back-to-back events in Berlin and San Francisco. Over the next month, we’ll be hearing from many app and game developers in cities around the world. It has been an amazing 2017 for developers on Google Play, there are now more than 8 billion new installs per month globally.

To help you continue to take advantage of this opportunity, we're announcing innovations on Google Play and new features in the Play Console. Follow us on Medium where presenters will be posting their strategies, best practices, and examples to help you achieve your business objectives. As Google Play continues to grow rapidly, we want to help people understand our business. That's why we're also publishing the State of Play 2017 report that will be updated annually to help you stay informed about our progress and how we’re helping developers succeed.

Apps and games on Google Play bring your devices to life, whether they're phones and tablets, Wear devices, TVs, Daydream, or Chromebooks like the new Google Pixelbook. We're making it even easier for people to discover and re-engage with great content on the Play Store.

Recognizing the best

We're investing in curation and editorial to showcase the highest quality apps and games we love. The revamped Editors' Choice is now live in 17 countries and Android Excellence recently welcomed new apps and games. We also continue to celebrate and support indie games, recently announcing winners of the Indie Games Festival in San Francisco and opening the second Indie Games Contest in Europe for nominations.

Discovering great games

We've launched an improved home for games with trailers and screenshots of gameplay and two new browse destinations are coming soon, 'New' (for upcoming and trending games) and 'Premium' (for paid games).

Going beyond installs

We’re showing reminders to try games you’ve recently installed and we’re expanding our successful ‘live operations’ banners on the Play Store, telling you about major in-game events in popular games you’ve got on your device. We're also excited to integrate Android Instant Apps with a 'Try it Now' button on store listings. With a single tap, people can jump right into the app experience without installing.

The new games experience on Google Play

The Google Play Console offers tools which help you and your team members at every step of an app’s lifecycle. Use the Play Console to improve app quality, manage releases with confidence, and increase business performance.

Focus on quality

Android vitals were introduced at I/O 2017 and already 65% of top developers are using the dashboard to understand their app's performance. We're adding five new Android vitals and increasing device coverage to help you address issues relating to battery consumption, crashes, and render time. Better performing apps are favored by Google Play's search and discovery algorithms.
We're improving pre-launch reports and enabling them for all developers with no need to opt-in. When you upload an alpha or beta APK, we'll automatically install and test your app on physical, popular devices powered by Firebase Test Lab. The report will tell you about crashes, display issues, security vulnerabilities, and now, performance issues encountered.
When you install a new app, you expect it to open and perform normally. To ensure people installing apps and games from Google Play have a positive experience and developers benefit from being part of a trusted ecosystem, we are introducing a policy to disallow apps which consistently exhibit broken experiences on the majority of devices such as crashing, closing, freezing, or otherwise functioning abnormally. Learn more in the policy center.

Release with confidence

Beta testing lets trusted users try your app or game before it goes to production so you can iterate on your ideas and gather feedback. You can now target alpha and beta tests to specific countries. This allows you to, for example, beta test in a country you're about to launch in, while people in other countries receive your production app. We'll be bringing country-targeting to staged rollouts soon.
We've also made improvements to the device catalog. Over 66% of top developers are using the catalog to ensure they provide a great user experience on the widest range of devices. You can now save device searches and see why a specific device doesn't support your app. Navigate to the device catalog and review the terms of service to get started.

Grow your subscriptions business

At I/O 2017 we announced that both the number of subscribers on Play and the subscriptions business revenue doubled in the preceding year. We're making it easier to setup and manage your subscription service with the Play Billing Library and, soon, new test instruments to simplify testing your flows for successful and unsuccessful payments.
We're helping you acquire and retain more subscribers. You can offer shorter free trials, at a minimum of three days, and we will now enforce one free trial at the app level to reduce the potential for abuse. You can opt-in to receive notifications when someone cancels their subscription and we're making it easier for people to restore a canceled subscription. Account hold is now generally available, where you can block access to your service while we get a user to fix a renewal payment issue. Finally, from January 2018 we're also updating our transaction fee for subscribers who are retained for more than 12 months.

Announcing the Google Play Security Reward Program

At Google, we have long enjoyed a close relationship with the security research community. Today we're introducing the Google Play Security Reward Program to incentivize security research into popular Android apps, including Google's own apps. The program will help us find vulnerabilities and notify developers via security recommendations on how to fix them. We hope to bring the success we have with our other reward programs, and we invite developers and the research community to work together with us on proactively improving Google Play ecosystem's security.