Android developers at Google have announced a bunch of innovations on Google Play and new features for the Play Console. These features are for improving both the developer and user experience. Some of them are Instant apps, Play security reward program, Play Store modification, and publisher friendly changes to Play Console.
Google Play Community
To let the users know what has been going behind the scene, the Google Play team will be publishing and updating a new annual report starting this year. You can read the latest report here. The Play report will help people understand their business, and success of developers so that more will come join the team. All new strategies adopted, best practices and examples will be shared by presenters on Medium with a view to helping others.
Google Play Store
Coming to the Play Store, they have changed its look and feel with many new sections. Reorganized Editors choice, improved home for games are a few to quote. These changes might not be live in your account yet. Apart from featuring the best, they also reward the best every year. The nominations for latest Indie game contents is on here.
Play store tracks the activity of every user and gives him suggestions, now these suggestions will include ‘live operations’ banners. You will be notified of every upcoming major in-game event of the apps you’ve got on your device. In addition, a new feature called Instant Apps is now live in Play store with a new ‘Try It Now button’ instead of ‘Install’. With Instant Apps, users can experience the app without installing them.
Google Play Console
The Play Console also has been reworked for the benefit of publishers and developers. For improving app quality and performance across devices, they have added five new Android vitals. From now on, pre-launch reports are available for all developers and no opt-in is necessary.
So whenever a publisher uploads an alpha or beta APK, it will be automatically tested on popular devices powered by Firebase Test Lab to generate reports. Also, it is now possible to target beta and alpha tests to specific countries. The extensive device catalog now helps developers to save searches and find why a specific device won’t support their app.
The subscription management and play billing system are now more flexible. It is now possible to implement shorter trials, service access blocks and simplified testing of in-app payment system. Starting January 2018, a change in transaction fee will come into effect for subscribers who complete more than 12 months.
Google Play Security Reward Program
Google also announced a security reward program aimed at finding vulnerabilities in android apps. This bug bounty program will be in collaboration with hackerone. Each eligible researcher can submit bugs and will get monetary rewards once they fix the vulnerability. To know more details regarding this head over to hackerone.