In celebration of the Play Store’s 10th birthday, Google has announced upcoming updates to benefit both developers and customers.
It will raise the bar for quality, by promoting high-quality apps in the store. To facilitate this, it is introducing new quality thresholds for app developers to meet. Two new Core Vitals that will be measured are user-perceived crash rate, which is the percentage of users who have experienced at least one noticeable app crash, and user-perceived ANR rate, which is the percentage of users who have experienced at least one “Application Not Responding” (ANR) error.
“Users expect great experiences on their devices, and developers who deliver on their expectations will achieve greater success on Google Play. While these updates were designed to help both users and developers to avoid the worst experiences, our long-term focus is to increase the number of great user experiences. To do this requires investment in other aspects of technical quality beyond crashes and ANRs, as well as investment in non-technical aspects of quality,” Lauren Mytton, group product manager for Google Play, wrote in a blog post.
The company also plans to add the option for developers to use the new Promotional Content format (previously called LiveOps) when marketing their apps. Promotional Content will enable developers to embed events, content, and offers across the Google Play customer journey.
Google is also going to add a new Churned-used Custom Store Listing that will allow app developers to reintroduce an app to a user who had previously uninstalled their app.
It is also announcing a number of new security initiatives. First, it is launching new features in the Play Integrity API, such as customized API responses and new reporting capabilities. It will also soon introduce the ability to debug API responses from the app developer settings on any device.
It is also expanding its communication and training on how to comply with Google Play policies, and expanding pilot programs on direct phone support and enforcement strike redemption.
Another upcoming update to Developers Previews will provide a privacy-friendly way of advertising. Google will work with developers over the next few years to jointly build out these capabilities.
