Posted by Larissa Fontaine, Director, Global Head of Apps Business Development, Google Play
Almost three years ago, we started the first of an ongoing series of developer events, called Playtime, dedicated to educating partners on best practices and tools available to improve their apps and games and grow successful businesses on Google Play. It was originally a modest gathering that was held on our campus in Mountain View, CA, but it has quickly grown to become one our premier developer events of the year (outside of Google I/O) with a huge global footprint. We've already been in London, Paris, Berlin, San Paulo, New Delhi, Moscow, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Seoul and more, just to meet directly with developers.
Today, Playtime is back in San Francisco after a long international run! On stage, we'll recap some of our recent efforts to invest in new areas that go beyond the smartphone, as well as announce new tools and highlight the major progress of recently launched features that help developers increase user engagement and make more money.
Extending beyond mobile devices
We live in a multiscreen world and people want to enjoy Android apps on the their phones, and many other devices. That's why we have been extending Google Play to go beyond the smartphone, enabling new app and gaming experiences while on the go, on a chromebook, in the living room and immersed in virtual reality.
The new Daydream device platform is going to be available soon and will come with a Google Play Store filled with high quality VR apps. Android Apps are now available in beta on a few Chromebook devices (same Android apps that currently run on phones and tablets). And we recently announced a developer preview of Android Wear 2.0 which introduced Google Play for Wear. This makes it easier for users to discover and install great apps that work directly on the watch.
Enhanced developer tools and programs
We continue to deliver the best tools for developers in the Play Developer Console to drive user engagement and increase revenue.
Offer new subscription promos
We know how important subscriptions are in helping you monetize and we're continuing to invest in features to support your subscription business. Subscriptions are the fastest growing business model on Play, with consumer spending in subscription apps increasing 10x over the last 3 years. Coming soon, you'll be able to create an introductory price for new subscribers for a set period of time. For example, you can offer a subscription for $1 per month for the first three months before the normal subscription price kicks in. Along with local/custom pricing and free trials already offered, introductory pricing will help you acquire more subscribers and grow your subscription business.
Build anticipation with pre-registration
Earlier this year, we started working with select developer to let users pre-register for major upcoming Android titles, such as Clash Royale (Supercell), and Candy Crush Jelly Saga (King), which has driven more than 30 million installs so far. With pre-registration, users simply tap the 'pre-register' icon to show their interest. The process automatically sets up an alert that prompts a user once the app is available. The program is limited at this time.
Get feedback early with Early Access
In only a few short months, more developers have been leveraging the "Early Access" open beta program to build a user base, interact with early-adopter users and get invaluable feedback before an official launch. It has been an immediate hit! Since the collection became available to all users, open beta titles have been installed over 4 million times (up from 1 million in September) and demand is growing. If you are a developer getting ready to launch on Google Play, you can nominate your app or game to be part of Early Access. Learn more here.
Recognizing art and innovation from Indies
To build awareness of the awesome innovation and art that indie game developers are bringing to users on Google Play, we have invested heavily over the past year in programs like Indie Corner, as well as industry events like the Google Play Indie Games Festival in North America. The new Indie Corner collection, in particular, has already helped million of gamers discover the latest and most innovative releases on Google Play. Developer can nominate indie game for inclusion at g.co/indiecornersubmission. We'll pick the best games to showcase based on the quality of the experience and exemplary use of Google Play game services.
Ensuring fair play for everyone
Our goal is always to do the right thing for both users and developers. As game economies have become more complex, developers are looking for more tools to ensure that all users play fairly to make gameplay fun for everyone. Today, we are announcing a new API (in beta) that helps developers identify users who have requested refunds so they can better manage their economies. This program is currently in early beta and interested developers can sign up to learn more here.
It has been another great year for Google Play thanks to the continued feedback and support from the developer community.
By Jamal Eason, Product Manager, Android
With the release of Android Studio 2.2, the time has now come to say goodbye to the Eclipse Android Developer Tools. We have formally ended their support and development. There's never been a better time to switch to Android Studio and experience the improvements we've made to the Android development workflow.
Android Studio
What's New in Android Studio 2.2
Android Studio 2.2 builds on the great features from Android Studio 2.0. There are over twenty new features that improve development whether you are designing, iterating, or testing. Notable changes include:
For our ADT Fans
All of your favorite ADT tools are now part of Android Studio, including DDMS, Trace Viewer, Network Monitor, and CPU Monitor. We've also improved Android Studio's accessibility, including keyboard navigation enhancements and screen reader support.
We announced that we were ending development and official support for the Android Developer Tools (ADT) in Eclipse at the end of 2015, including the Eclipse ADT plugin and Android Ant build system. With the latest updates to Studio, we've completed the transition.
Migrating to Android Studio
To get started, download and install Android Studio. For most developers, including those with C/C++ projects, migration is as simple as importing your existing Eclipse ADT projects in Android Studio with the File > New > Import Project menu option. For more details on the migration process, check out the migration guide.
Feedback and Open Source Contributions
We're dedicated to making Android Studio the best possible integrated development environment for building Android apps, so if there are missing features or other challenges preventing you from switching to Android Studio, we want to hear about it [survey] ! You can also file bugs or feature requests directly with the team, and let us know via our Twitter or Google+ accounts.
Android Studio is an open source project, available to all at no cost. Check out our Open Source project page if you're interested in contributing or learning more.
Posted by Dorothy Kelly, Head of Developer Insights, Google Play Developer Marketing
Core to our mission, we're always focused on the user and delivering the best experience possible. This same principle underlies how Google Play works with developers, as we aim to provide you with best experience working with us and our products. We can only do this through understanding what you need and how we can improve. We ran our first Developer Sentiment Survey in July this year, and heard feedback from over 4,000 developers across 15 countries. This bi-annual survey gathers feedback at scale from the thousands of developers around the world who publish their apps and games on Google Play. While it was great to hear how Google Play is working for you, we also learned how we should improve to enable you to build even more successful businesses.
This month, you may receive an email from Google Play inviting you to participate in the next Google Play Developer Sentiment Survey. This invitation is sent to a selection developers who have opted in to receive Research contacts in the Developer Console, or to those who are directly managed by Google. You can review and update your preferences in the Developer Console to ensure you get the opportunity to be invited to participate in future surveys.
In this survey we ask you to give us feedback across a number of areas:
We use your feedback to decide what we need to focus on next to help you grow your app or game business. Initiatives announced at I/O 2016, such as improved betas, prelaunch reporting, the Developer Console app, and pricing templates, were all developed in response to feedback from developers like you.
If you do receive an invitation to participate in this survey, we really appreciate you taking the time to complete it. We value your feedback and want to act on it to help you create apps and games that delight your users, and help you build a successful business anywhere in the world.
Posted by Kazushi Nagayama, Search Quality Analyst, and Andrew Ahn, Product Manager
We strive to continuously make Google Play the best platform for enjoying and discovering the most innovative and trusted apps. Today we are announcing additional enhancements to protect the integrity of the store.
Our teams work every day to improve the quality of our discovery systems. These content discovery systems ensure that users can find and download apps they will love. From time to time, we observe instances of developers attempting to manipulate the placement of their apps through illegitimate means like fraudulent installs, fake reviews, and incentivized ratings. These attempts not only violate the Google Play Developer Policy, but also harm our community of developers by hindering their chances of being discovered or recommended through our systems. Ultimately, they put the end users at risk of making wrong decisions based on inaccurate, unauthentic information.
Today we are rolling out improved detection and filtering systems to combat such manipulation attempts. If an install is conducted with the intention to manipulate an app's placement on Google Play, our systems will detect and filter it. Furthermore, developers who continue to exhibit such behaviors could have their apps taken down from Google Play.
In the vast majority of cases, no action will be needed. If you are asking someone else to promote your app (e.g., third-party marketing agency), we advise you to make sure that the promotion is based on legitimate practices. In case of questions, please check out the Developer Support Resources.
These important changes will help protect the integrity of Google Play, our developer community, and ultimately our end user. Thank you for your support in building the world's most trusted store for apps and games!
Guest post by Rajiev Timal, Founder of Readfeed
Readfeed was created to help book lovers around the world share and discuss their favorite reads with each other more easily. Today, we are excited to officially launch the Readfeed app on Google Play. As one of the first online book clubs available only on Android devices, Readfeed lets you create your virtual bookshelf by adding books to custom lists, track and share your reading progress with community members, and see what books others are reading and talking about.
Readfeed has come a long way since we first released the app as beta in Google Play's Early Access program. As one of the first graduates of the beta program, we were able to solicit feature requests, identify bugs, locate new and optimize existing target markets, as well as build a sizable reader community. This allowed Readfeed to deliver the best possible experience right out of the gate.
As a guest on this blog, we thought it would be helpful to share some important best practices that we learned from the Early Access program to improve your products and scale your user base.
Harnessing Feedback Loops
One of the core principles underlying the construction of any successful product is setting up an effective feedback loop between users and product creators. Google Play Early access does this automatically. Users show up (sometimes seemingly out of nowhere), install the app, and leave feedback in the Beta Feedback section of the developer console. We can then reply in that section or take the conversation into an email, address the issue, and email users when it's addressed. Many improvements to Readfeed have been made as a direct result of this process.
Identifying New Target Markets
One major benefit of Early Access was that it gave us immediate access to a worldwide audience of readers. We were able to quickly assess the different book-related markets that existed based on user feedback and interviews done through email. Since launched in beta, over 1000 people have asked to read free books. Apparently this need exists in third-world countries and we plan to add this functionality in a future release.
Identifying Bugs
Bugs plague any app in its early stages. Because of the variety of devices that Early Access users have, ranging from Android 4.2 rooted devices to the latest Nexus phones, we were able to identify bugs very quickly. For instance, on Android 4.2 there was a recurrent crash which was tough for me to identify with my own devices. After one user emailed me about it, I was able to gather enough information to resolve the issue and put out an update immediately.
Identifying New Features
Google Play Early Access made it a lot easier to determine what to do next. When about 10 people request a feature, we know it's immediately important and put it in the app. One feature that came directly from Early Access feedback was the ability to rate books without leaving a review.
Community Building
Early Access has allowed us to start building a community. For instance, a Software tester from the UK who likes books sent me a detailed analysis of all of Readfeed's bugs. Also, we've witnessed many people take the initiative and answer others' questions about the app. Because of the critical mass that Google Play Early Access helps you build, it's easy for communities to form and start sharing information with each other.
A/B Testing
We now have enough users to A/B test certain parts of the app and get statistically significant results. This is something that usually takes a long time to achieve.
There are many other ways Google Play Early Access have helped us, and we're thankful that Readfeed has had the opportunity to be a part of the program. I can say without reservation that our current and future product would be in a very different place had it not been for our inclusion in Early Access.
By: Mary Liz McCurdy, Health & Fitness Lead, Google Play
(Originally published on Android Central)
It's an exciting time to be a health & fitness app developer. With people shelling out on fitness more than ever before, we're seeing record high levels of gym memberships and attendance, the rise of boutique fitness, and an emphasis on connected devices.
Paramount to this growth is the integration of smart technology. Whether it be through streaming video, wearables, or mobile apps, technology empowers us with instant access to high quality workouts, sensor biofeedback, and endless on-demand inspiration. At Google Play, we've seen this growth reflected by the incredible popularity of health & fitness apps. In fact, this is one of Google Play's fastest growing app categories, boasting the most engaged 30d active users.
As the resident health & fitness expert on Google Play, I had the opportunity to speak about what's driving the category's growth at the recent Wearables Technology Show. Here are the top three recommendations I shared with the audience to help coach developers towards building more valuable app experiences:
Lose it!
We all know how painful manually logging activity and biometrics is- be it calorie tracking, workouts, moods, or hormone cycles. Manual logging is actually the number one reason users drop off.
What you should do: Minimize distraction with automation wherever possible while maximizing value at the appropriate moments. Remember that you are in all likelihood a companion experience to the main event.
Lose It! makes food tracking easier by using your phone's camera and image recognition technology to identify foods and their nutritional information. Goodbye manual calorie counting!
Strava uses auto pause detection, recognizing when you are resting during exercise so you don't need to fiddle with your device and can stay safe and in the zone.
Freeletics
Investing in robust personalization has been the driving factor in improving app engagement and buyer conversion among many of our top developers.
What you should do: Personalize the experience for each user or distinct user cohorts by leveraging technology like the Awareness API, Fit API, Google Sign In, and Facebook Login to intelligently pull in relevant user data. Think about your first-time users, power users, high value users, etc. and treat them uniquely.
Freeletics personalizes onboarding and the overall app experience based on gender and fitness level leading to a 58% increase in weekly active sessions.
Workout Trainer by Skimble increased user engagement by 30% through personalizing training programs based on user fitness assessments, goals, and workout patterns.
Glow
The rise of smartphones, wearables and IoT have left us swimming in data and dashboards and left many consumers wondering, so what?
What you should do: Offer insights and suggestions, not just raw data. Users are not engineers and generally do not want to process complex data or dashboards. In most cases, they want you to tell them what to do in the moment or provide digestible summaries after the fact. Keep it simple.
Glow provides personalized insights that leverage user-inputted data and third party data from Google Fit to help couples achieve their fertility goals.
Beddit gives personalized daily tips to improve your sleep and wellness by analyzing sleep cycles, resting heart rate, respiration, room temperature, and more.
At the end of the day, changing health and fitness habits is hard. Make it easier for your users by seamlessly guiding them on what they personally need to do to achieve their goal. It's that simple ;) We encourage you to experiment with these exercises to get your app fit for the millions of Android users looking to live a healthier, happier life.
Posted by Kacey Fahey, Marketing Programs Manager, Google Play
Interested in growing your app on a global scale? See how two app developers localized their apps in unique ways to drive revenue and user engagement.
drupe
drupe is a communications app that utilizes the openness of android to build a truly native experience delivering highly contextual recommendations to their users across the world.
Key to achieving international growth, drupe has translated their app in 17 languages, and their store listing page in 28 languages. This led to an increase in conversion and retention rates. Additionally, when entering India, the team noticed several user reviews requesting integration with a specific messaging app widely used in the Indian market. Through a combination of this integration, adding Hindi language translation, and other new features, drupe saw improved performance. In six months, daily active users increased 300%, and actions per average daily user increased 25% in the Indian market.
Noom
In addition to translating their app and store listing page, Noom conducted extensive analysis to determine the right financial model tailored to each international market. This included evaluation of their competitive landscape and local health and wellness spending behavior, in addition to running pricing experiments to determine the optimal offering between subscriptions, IAPs, or a premium app.
Use the Localization Checklist to learn more about tailoring your app for different markets to drive installs and revenue, and to create a better overall user experience. Also, get the Playbook for Developers app to stay up-to-date on new features and learn best practices that will help you grow a successful business on Google Play.
Read the full articles for drupe and Noom.
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