New Google Play SDK Index helps you choose the right SDKs for your app

Posted by Yafit Becher, Product Manager and Ray Brusca, Strategic Partnerships Manager

 

App developers rely on SDKs to integrate key functionality and services for their apps and games. SDKs are essential building blocks, but developers have shared that it can be hard to figure out which SDKs are reliable and safe to use. So helping developers, like you, make informed decisions about SDKs is part of keeping Google Play a safe, trusted space for billions of people.

In 2020, we launched Google Play SDK Console to give SDK providers crash reporting, usage statistics, and a way to communicate critical issues to app developers through Google Play Console and Android Studio. Today, we’re taking another step to increase communication and transparency by launching Google Play SDK Index, a new public portal that lists over 100 of the most widely used commercial SDKs, and insights about each one.

Google Play SDK Index shows reliability and safety signals so you can decide if an SDK is right for your business and your users.

You can search for an SDK or look through a category, like Advertising and monetization or Analytics. For each SDK listing, Google Play SDK Index combines usage data from Google Play apps with SDK code detection to provide insights designed to help you decide if an SDK is right for your business and your users. You can see:

• Which Android app permissions the SDK may request
• If the SDK provider is committed to ensuring that their SDK’s code follows Google Play policies
• Version adoption rates
• Retention metrics, and more

SDK providers can also share key information with you for the SDKs that they registered on Google Play SDK Console, like:

• Which SDK version is outdated or has critical issues
• Links to data safety guidance on what data the SDK collects and why, to help you fill out your app’s Data safety form.

No matter where you’re at in your development lifecycle, we hope you find Google Play SDK Index useful in making informed SDK choices. Stay tuned for more updates as we add additional data points, categories, and volume of SDKs..

For more:

• Watch our “What’s new in Google Play” and “What’s new in Android Studio” I/O sessions
• Review how to make informed choices with Google Play SDK Index
• Review best practices for protecting user safety