Google is introducing new changes to the Play Store to improve discovery of high-quality apps, help developers showcase limited-time events and offers with new placements and formats, and protect apps from unknown, risky traffic and coordinated review attacks. The company announced these changes in a blog post today, highlighting how the changes will benefit both developers and users of the platform.
Currently, developers on Google Play can use LiveOps cards to promote offers, launches and events on the platform. Google is expanding the reach of these cards by introducing new high-impact placements and formats that will reach more users. In addition, the company plans to add support for new content types for LiveOps cards, and it’s renaming LiveOps to promotional content “to better reflect the breadth of the content” developers can submit. Promotional content is already available for many titles on the Play Store, and Google plans to expand to more developers next year.
In addition to helping developers acquire new users, Google is also introducing a new custom store listing to help them bring back users who have tried their apps before. The new custom store listing for Churned users will roll out towards the end of this year, allowing developers to “tell a different story to users who have tried by installing your apps or games.”
Google also wants to reward developers who submit high-quality apps to the Play Store by making them more visible on the platform. To that end, the company is implementing new quality thresholds for apps that will help developers maximize visibility on the platform. Apps that meet the new thresholds will be given more priority over low-quality apps, with the latter removed “effective discovery surfaces as recommendations.” Some low-quality apps will also display a warning on their store listing to help users make an informed download decision.
Finally, Google is expanding its security initiatives and policies to give developers a better experience in the Play Store. The company is launching new Play Integrity API features to defend against risky traffic and a new program to protect apps from coordinated notification attacks. It’s worth mentioning that Google recently added a time buffer for ratings and reviews in the Play Store to achieve a similar goal. Google is also starting new programs to provide developers with more communication and training about Play Store policies, and “Expanding pilots on live phone support and strike removal.”
