I/O 2017: Everything new in the Google Play Console

Posted by Vineet Buch, Director of Product Management, Google Play Apps & Games

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Google Play continues to grow rapidly around the world, thanks to our ecosystem of developers building high quality and engaging app experiences. There are now 2 billion monthly active Android devices. People in 190 countries downloaded 82 billion apps from the Play Store in the last year and the number of developers with more than 1 million monthly installs grew by 35 percent year on year. We've made huge investments to make purchasing quick and easy by offering direct carrier billing with 140 operators that reach 900M devices every month. These, and other efforts, have made the number of buyers on Google Play grow by almost 30 percent in the last year.

Since we launched the Google Play Console in 2012, we've continued to add features to help you do much more than just publish apps. People in a variety of roles at app and game companies, large and small, carry out tasks like running beta tests, analyzing crashes, responding to customer reviews, evaluating A/B experiments on store listings, pulling financial reports, and more.

Today at Google I/O, we're announcing new and improved features to help you improve your app's performance and quality, and grow your business on Google Play.

Statistics

^UPDATED The statistics page for your app now gives you quicker, more flexible access to important data about your business. Compare two different metrics and break them down by a dimension. Select any date range you want, view a breakdown of your data, and even access hourly stats.

Android vitals

^NEW Understand your app's Android vitals so you can fix bad behaviors, improve your app experience, and increase your star rating. View aggregated, anonymized device data from people who have opted in their devices to understand three crucial aspects of your app's performance: stability (crash rates and App Not Responding [ANR] rates), battery usage (stuck wake locks and excessive wakeups), and render time (slow rendering and frozen UI frames). Learn more about Android vitals.

^UPDATED The ANRs & crashes page has also been updated with larger crash coverage and now benefits from a higher volume of data.

Release management

^NEW Use the new release dashboard to track a release as it happens. By monitoring how your release is affecting important metrics, you can be confident that everything is going as planned or you can quickly halt your rollout if anything looks out of the ordinary.

^NEW Publish Android Instant Apps with the same release management flow you're familiar with from publishing apps on Google Play. Iterate quickly with a development track, gather feedback from trusted testers on a pre-release track, and when you're ready, release to production. Get started with Android Instant Apps.

^NEW The new device catalog will help ensure you're offering a great user experience on the widest range of devices. Search and filter across rich device data for thousands of devices certified by Google. The catalog even shows you your installs, rating, and revenue contributed by device type to help you make the right decisions. You can now also set device exclusion rules by performance indicators like RAM and system on chip. With more granular controls you can exclude fewer devices and offer the best experience on all devices your app supports. Learn more about the device catalog.

^NEW For something as important as your app signing key, there's no room for error. With app signing in the Play Console, you now have the option to securely transfer your key to Google to manage on your behalf. You'll benefit from Google's industry leading security and be able to opt-in for upcoming assistive services like app optimizations for APK size. Once opted-in to this service, the Play Store will deliver versions of your APK optimized for the screen density and native architecture of each target device type, saving data and device storage for your users. Learn more about app signing.







^UPDATED The pre-launch report, powered by Firebase Test Lab, shows you the results of testing your alpha or beta app on real devices in the lab so you can spot and fix issues before you launch, so they won't affect your rating. The report has been updated with more device test coverage including Android O devices, and new controls, like being able to provide credentials so your app can be tested behind a login.

User acquisition

^NEW The acquisition report helps you understand where visitors to your store listing are coming from and whether they go on to install and buy things in your app. The report now includes retained installer data. This reveals which channels and geographies drive valuable users who keep your app installed over periods of up-to 30 days, helping you optimize your marketing efforts.

Financial reports

^NEW Subscriptions are the fastest growing business on Google Play � the number of active subscribers has doubled in the last year. With the subscriptions dashboard, see how your subscriptions are performing and make better decisions to grow your business. Understand and analyze total subscribers, revenue, retention, and churn across multiple dimensions.

User feedback

^UPDATED Reviews are a valuable channel you can use to engage with people who have your app installed directly. Reviews analysis now covers more languages to help you gather insights from reviews to improve your app. Updated ratings summarizes how users have updated their ratings and reviews, including the effect any replies you made had on those updates. Reviews history shows you the history of your conversation with a user. Finally, we are rolling out the ability to report reviews which do not meet the posting policy guidelines.

Watch us introduce the new Play Console features live at I/O 2017

Tune in live to watch the 'What's new in Google Play at I/O 2017' session, which starts at 12:30pm PT on Thursday, May 18. The team is excited to share all the features we've been working on.

We're also presenting deeper dives into all of our new features and sharing best practices to help you succeed on Google Play. Watch all the Google Play I/O sessions live or afterwards on YouTube:



Day 1, May 17

• New release management and device targeting tools in the Play Console or: how I learned to stop worrying and love Android's diversity!


• No one likes crashing or janky apps! Engineer for high performance with tools from Android & Google Play

Day 2, May 18

• Best practices to slim down your app size


• Making data on Google Play work for you


• How to secure and optimize your app with Google Play app signing


• 10 Google Play Console secrets to optimize Android apps for stellar user retention

Day 3, May 19

• Boost user retention with behavioral insights


• Make more money with subscriptions on Google Play


• Android apps for Chromebooks and large screen devices


• Tools and tips to boost user engagement and retention


• Android TV: How to engage more users and earn more revenue

And be sure to watch the Google Play Awards on day two, which will once again recognize outstanding developers that continue to set the bar for quality apps and games.

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Why you should localize your app or game for Middle East and North Africa

By Mohammad El-Saadi, Business Development, Google Play



The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is a fast growing market for app and game developers on Google Play, and localizing is crucial to making the most of the opportunity. For example, the main grossing apps & games in Saudi Arabia have localized their store listings and their actual app and game on Google Play.



The British team behind the Skyscanner travel app had already localised it into more than 15 languages, yet the launch in Arabic was a huge milestone for them. Arabic speaking users really appreciated the localization and the app's average user rating increased from 4.62? to 4.77? after localization. Users engaged with the app longer, with an increase of 30% in their average session duration. Additionally 50% more travellers have been redirected to Skyscanner partners to book flight, hotel and car hire deals.

Skyscanner opening screen in English and in Arabic

But how difficult is it to correctly localize your app or game to Arabic?



The team at Skyscanner managed to develop Right-To-Left (RTL) Arabic language support within the app in two weeks: "Our initial fear was that we would need lots of manual coding for the layouts. However, the Android layout system handled all of the cases really well. We were already using *Start and *End margin and padding in line with guidelines, but there's also Android Studio support and Lint check to fix any issues automatically." says Mate Herber, Software Engineer.



Many other top apps and games developers are successfully investing in localizing for MENA users. For example, when game developer Pocket Gems localized War Dragons, the installs by Arabic speaking users tripled. Their percentage of revenue from Arabic language players also went from effectively 0% to ~1.5%.



We just refreshed the Now in Arabic collection (MENA only) with 16 newly localized apps and games, including titles like Netflix, Periscope and Transformers. It will be live until May 11 on Google Play in the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates.

Check our Localization Checklist for best practices when localizing for any language, and our Going Global Playbook. When your app or game in Arabic is ready, you can self-nominate to be part of future refreshes of the Now in Arabic collection by filling in this form.

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App onboarding for kids: how Budge Studios creates a more engaging experience for families

Posted by Josh Solt (Partner Developer Manager, Kids Apps at Google Play) and Noemie Dupuy (Founder & Co-CEO at Budge Studios)



Developers spend a considerable amount of resources driving users to download
their apps, but what happens next is often the most critical part of the user
journey. User onboarding is especially nuanced in the kids
space since developers must consider two audiences: parents and children. When
done correctly, a compelling onboarding experience will meet the needs of both
parents and kids while also accounting for unique considerations, such as a
child's attention span.




Budge Studios has successfully grown their
catalog of children's titles by making onboarding a focal point of their
business. Their target demographic is three to eight-year olds, and their
portfolio of games include top titles featuring Strawberry Shortcake, Hello
Kitty, Crayola, Caillou and The Smurfs.

"First impressions matter, as do users' first experience with your app. In fact,
70%¹ of users who delete an app will do so within a day of having downloaded it,
leaving little time for second chances. As an expert in kids' content, Budge
tapped into our knowledge of kids to improve and optimize the onboarding
experience, leading to increased initial game-loop completion and retention." -
Noemie, Founder & Co-CEO at Budge Studios

Three key ways Budge Studios designs better onboarding
experiences:

1. Make sure your game is tailor-made for kids




When Budge released their app Crayola
Colorful Creatures, they looked at data to identify opportunities to create
a smoother onboarding flow for kids. At launch, only 25% of first-time users
were completing the initial game loop. Budge analyzed data against gameplay and
realized the last activity was causing a drastic drop-off. It required kids to
use the device's microphone, and that proved too challenging for very young
kids. Budge was able to adjust the initial game loop so that all the activities
were accessible to the youngest players. These adjustments almost tripled the
initial loop completion, resulting in 74% of first-time users progressing to see
additional activities.




2. Earn parents trust by providing real value upfront





Budge has a large of portfolio of apps. Earning parents' trust by providing
valuable and engaging experiences for kids is important for retaining users in
their ecosystem and achieving long term success.




With every new app, Budge identifies what content is playable for free, and what
content must be purchased. Early on, Budge greatly limited the amount of free
content they offered, but over time has realized providing high quality free
content enhances the first-time user experience. Parents are more willing to
spend on an app if their child has shown a real interest in a title.




Working with top kids' brands means that Budge can tap into brand loyalty of
popular kids characters to provide value. To launch Strawberry
Shortcake Dreams, Budge decided to offer Strawberry Shortcake, the most
popular character in the series, as a free character. Dress Up Dreams is among
the highest converting apps in the Budge portfolio, indicating that giving away
the most popular character for free helped conversions rather than hurting it.




3. Test with real users




Budge knows there is no substitute for direct feedback from its end-users, so
Budge involves kids every step of the way. Budge Playgroup is a playtesting
program that invites families to try out apps at the alpha, beta and
first-playable development stages.




The benefits from early testing can be as basic as understanding how the size
and coordination of kids' hands affect their ability to complete certain actions
or even hold the device, and as specific as pinpointing a less-than-effective
button.




In the testing stages of Strawberry Shortcake Holiday Hair, Budge caught an
issue with the main menu of the app, which would not have been evident without
observing kids using the app.

Prior to Playtesting:

After Playtesting:

In the original design, users were prompted to start gameplay by audio cues.
During testing, it was clear that the voiceover was not sufficient in guiding
kids to initiate play, and that additional visual clues would significantly
improve the experience. A simple design change resulted in a greatly enhanced
user experience.




The onboarding experience is just one component of an app, but just like first
impressions, it has a disproportionate impact on your users' perception of your
app. As Budge has experienced, involving users in testing your app, using data
to flag issues and providing real value to your users upfront, creates a
smoother, more accessible onboarding experience and leads to better results.




For more best practices on developing family apps and games, please check out The
Family Playbook for
developers.
And visit the Android Developers website to stay up-to-date with features and
best practices that will help you grow a
successful business on Google Play.




1.http://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/mobile-app-retention-5-key-strategies-to-keep-your-customers/

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Android Developer Story: Robinhood uses Android Studio to quickly build and test new features

Posted by Christopher Katsaros, Developer Marketing, Android



Robinhood allows users to buy and sell stocks commission-free* in the US. It is designed to make financial investment easy for all users, even if you�ve never traded before.



With a team of two Android developers, the company has relied on fast tools like
Android Studio to
build rich new features, which have helped make Robinhood the highest-rated
stock brokerage app on Google Play.




Watch Robinhood's Joe Binney, VP of Product Engineering, and Dan Hill, Android
Developer, talk about how Android Studio is helping them achieve strong growth
on Android.

The top Android developers use Android Studio to build powerful and successful
apps on Google Play; learn more about the official IDE for Android app
development and get
started for yourself.




Get more tips and watch other success stories in the Playbook for
Developers app.




*Free trading refers to $0 commissions for Robinhood Financial self-directed individual cash or margin brokerage accounts that trade U.S. listed securities via mobile devices. SEC & FINRA regulatory fees may apply.

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Focusing our Google Play games services efforts

Posted By James Smith, Product Manager, Google Play



In order to help developers make great games and build their businesses, we
offer Google Play Games Services (GPGS). GPGS provides powerful tools to build, analyze and retain your audience and optimize your
game. After listening to developer feedback and examining usage, we have decided
to remove some of the features so we can focus on making our offering more
useful.




In December, we
announced the end of support for the creation of new iOS accounts given the
low usage of GPGS on iOS. Additionally, our latest Native SDK release (2.3) will
no longer support integration with iOS and going forward we will not be
supporting or updating the iOS SDK.




We've also examined the features that GPGS offers. While developers use
engagement and reporting tools extensively, there is lower usage for Gifts,
Requests, and Quests. We therefore plan to stop supporting Gifts, Requests, and Quests. In
order to help developers that do use these features plan for their removal, we will leave them open for 12 months, deactivating them by 31st March 2018. We'll
be continuing support for other features such as Sign-in, Achievements,
Leaderboards and Multiplayer.




Play games services remains an important part of the tools we provide
developers, and we're working hard on future GPGS updates. We continue to be
strongly committed to providing high quality services for Games, including new
tools such as official
Firebase support for Unity and C++ developers, and integration
with Firebase Analytics. These changes allow us to focus our efforts on the
services developers value most to build high quality, engaging games.

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5 tips for indie game success, from indie game developers

Posted by Sarah Thomson, BD Partnerships Lead, Indies, Google Play
Games




Mobile gaming is a fun place to be right now. It's a landscape seeing tremendous
success year after year with great potential for additional growth and
innovation. It's also a space where developers can express themselves with
creative game styles, mechanics, design and more. This is what the indie
community does best.




Here are 5 tips for indies by indies, shared by our gaming partners at 505
Games, About
Fun, Disruptor
Beam, Klei
Entertainment, and Schell
Games.

1. Embrace being indie

Indies are inherently smaller operations and should embrace their agility and
ability to take risks. Petr Vodak, CEO at About
Fun, recommends getting your product out there so you can
start taking feedback and apply your learnings to future projects. Don't be
afraid to fail! Remaining flexible and building in modularity so you can evolve
with the business needs is a strategy embraced by Pete Arden, CMO at Disruptor
Beam. For instance, with their game Star Trek Timelines, the initial user
experience was tailored to avid Star Trek fans. Over time, as user acquisition
costs increased, they've changed the new player experience to appeal to their
evolving user base of gamers looking for a fun entertainment experience and less
the specific Star Trek IP.

2. Find a way to stand out

To help stand out in the ultra competitive mobile space, Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell
Games, recommends doing something clever or very different. This strategy
has led them to explore the growth areas of new platforms such as AR & VR. While
new platforms present a field for opportunity and creativity, they're best to be
approached with the long term in mind allowing you to sustain the business until
critical mass is reached.

3. Build a community

There are many ways to build communities. If you have an existing fan base on
other platforms, cross-promote to drive awareness of your mobile offerings. You
can also look at porting titles over, but be aware of the differences in mobile
gaming habits and ensure you adapt your game accordingly.

4. Engage after install

Both 505
Games and Klei
Entertainment recommend running your premium titles as a service. Through
monitoring user reviews you can gain invaluable feedback and trends helping you
better understand user pain points and desires. In addition, by releasing
regular content updates and in-game events you create reason for users to get
back in the game. This not only drives reengagement, but 505 Games also sees
strong spikes in new installs aligned with major game updates.

5. Monetize in different ways

Similar strategy to above, dropping regular content refreshes and game updates
while offering a variety of monetization options gives users more ways to engage
with your game. Keeping your games fresh gives users reason to come back and
builds loyalty so you can cross-promote to your users with future game launches.




If you're looking for a fun new game to play, check out the great selection on
Indie
Corner on Google Play. And if you're working on a new indie game of your
own, nominate your title for
inclusion.




Watch
more sessions from Google Developer Day at GDC17 on the Android Developers
YouTube channel to learn tips for success. Visit the Android Developers website
to stay up-to-date with features and best practices that will help you grow a
successful business on Google Play.

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5 tips for building communities on mobile

Posted by Dave Geffon, Partnerships Manager, Google Play Games




The most successful games usually have the strongest communities. They are a
powerful force in driving additional engagement and increasing awareness for
your titles. At GDC 2017, we spoke with a few game developers about best
practices for successfully building their own communities. Watch the panel
session below to hear advice from Seriously,
Social
Point, and Super
Evil MegaCorp.

1. Be authentic

Community is a mindset; be honest, transparent & patient with
your communications. Loyal users are extremely valuable, thus the folks at Super
Evil Megacorp say that you should act like you have to earn every player.



2. Start small

Build a plan and start today. Launch your social media
channels, look into influencers, and create a strategy. Whether it's sharing one
piece of fan art a week across your network, or running a closed beta to gather
feedback from your most valued users, take action and learn what works best for
you and your users.

3. Play match-maker

When finding influencers to support your game, ensure
they're a genuine match. Make sure the influencer's audience is a good fit with
your game and existing community.

4. Seek feedback 

Communities are passionate. Use feedback to understand what
kind of game and features your users want. Be flexible and iterative so you can
react and evolve your game with the needs and desires of your community.
However, don't be afraid to stay true to what you stand for as sometimes you'll
need to agree to disagree with some players.

5. Build for the long-term

The lifespan of games is continuing to grow. Plan
your business strategy, update cycles and community efforts to roll out over
time and expand with your growing experiences and user-base.

Watch
more sessions from Google Developer Day at GDC17 on the Android Developers
YT channel to learn tips for success. Also, visit the Android Developers website
to stay up-to-date with features and best practices that will help you grow a
successful business on Google Play.

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5 tips for launching successful apps and games on Google Play

Posted by Adam Gutterman, Go-To-Market Strategic Lead, Google Play
Games




Last month at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), we held a developer panel
focused on sharing best practices for building successful app and game
businesses. Check out 5 tips for developers, both large and small, as shared by
our gaming partners at Electronic
Arts (EA), Hutch
Games, Nix
Hydra, Space Ape
Games and Omnidrone.

1. Test, test, test

The best time to test, is before you launch; so test boldly and test a lot! Nix
Hydra recommends testing creative, including art style and messaging, as well as
gameplay mechanics, onboarding flows and anything else you're not sure about.
Gathering feedback from real users in advance of launching can highlight what's
working and what can be improved to ensure your game's in the best shape
possible at launch.

2. Store listing experiments

Run experiments on all of your store listing page assets. Taking bold risks
instead of making assumptions allows you to see the impact of different
variables with your actual user base on Google Play. Test in different regions
to ensure your store listing page is optimized for each major market, as they
often perform differently.



3. Early Access program



Space Ape Games recently used Early Access to test different onboarding
experiences and gameplay control methods in their game. Finding the right
combination led them to double-digit growth in D1 retention. Gathering these
results in advance of launch helped the team fine tune and polish the game,
minimizing risk before releasing to the masses.

"Early Access is cool because you can ask the big questions and get real
answers from real players," Joe Raeburn, Founding Product Guy at Space Ape
Games.

Watch the Android Developer Story below to hear how Omnidrone benefits from
Early Access using strong user feedback to improve retention, engagement and
monetization in their game.

Mobile game developer Omnidrone benefits from Early Access.

4. Pre-registration



Electronic Arts has run more than 5 pre-registration campaigns on Google Play.
Pre-registration allows them to start marketing and build awareness for titles
with a clear call-to-action before launch. This gives them a running start on
launch day having built a group of users to activate upon the game's release
resulting in a jump in D1 installs.



5. Seek feedback



All partners strongly recommended seeking feedback early and often. Feedback
tells both sides of the story, by pointing out what's broken as well as what
you're doing right. Find the right time and channels to request feedback,
whether they be in-game, social, email, or even through reading and responding
to reviews
within the Google Play store.




If you're a startup who has an upcoming launch on Google Play or has launched an
app or game recently and you're interested in opportunities like Early Access
and pre-registration, get
in touch with us so we can work with you.




Watch
sessions from Google Developer Day at GDC17 on the Android Developers YT
channel to learn tips for success. Also, visit the Android Developers website to
stay up-to-date with features and best practices that will help you grow a
successful business on Google Play.

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Android Developer Story: LinkedIn uses Android Studio to build a performant app

Posted by Christopher Katsaros, Developer Marketing, Android






LinkedIn is the world's largest social network
for professionals. LinkedIn has 10
apps on Google Play, including the flagship LinkedIn
app, which provides all of the same features users find on the web, so users
can do things like browse and send messages to their professional network with
an improved user experience.




For LinkedIn, and other teams with a large number of developers adding code to a
project, making sure that everyone pays attention to areas that affect
performance is vital for the quality of their app. That's why the the LinkedIn
mobile team uses Android Studio to
build high quality Android apps.




Watch Pradeepta Dash, Engineering Manager for Infrastructure at LinkedIn, as
well as Drew Hannay, Tech Lead for the Android Infrastructure team, talk about
how Android Studio helps everyone on their team stay focused on these topics
while getting new engineers quickly up and running:

The top Android developers use Android Studio to build powerful, successful apps
for Google Play; you can learn more about the official IDE for Android app
development, and get
started for yourself.




Get more tips and watch more success stories in the Playbook for
Developers app.

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Grow your app or game business on Google Play with new best practices

Posted by Dom Elliott, Developer Marketing, Google Play

We've updated the Android
Developers website with some useful information about Google Play and the
Google Play Developer Console for new and existing developers alike.


Visit the site to understand more about:

• How Google
  Play helps you grow your business
  


• The Google PlayDeveloper Console and its features
  


• Best
  practices to succeed on Google Play
  


• And more!

The updated business guide to succeeding on Google Play is full of best
practices and success stories from other developers grouped into five
objectives. Here are a few new articles to check out:

• Develop: Build a high quality app or game with best
  practices on topics such as implementing
  material design, testing
  on popular devices, using
  Firebase Analytics, and requesting
  permissions appropriately.
  


• Launch: Review the updated launch
  checklist, the localization checklist, and best practices on topics such as using pre-launch
  & crash reports, beta
  testing, and making a compelling
  store listing before publishing your app to the world.
  


• Engage: Keep users coming back to your app or game with
  best practices on topics such as links
  & search results, notifications,
  optimizing
  for Chromebooks, and Actions
  on Google.
  


• Grow: Build a valuable audience for your app with best
  practices on topics such as universal
  app campaigns, understanding
  user acquisition, expanding
  to new markets, and store
  listing experiments.
  


• Earn: Grow your revenue with best practices on topics such
  as subscriptions
  with Google Play In-app Billing, Android
  Pay, and improving
  conversions with Firebase Analytics.

Head to the best
practice guide to check out more of the articles. We'll continue to post
useful best practices and success stories here on the blog and to the guide so
you can read them on the web or in the Playbook
app. To stay up-to-date with our news and tips, opt in to emails from Google Play in
the Developer Console (or subscribe
here if you don't have a developer account).

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