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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And the winners of the Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe are...

Posted by Matteo Vallone, Google Play Games Business Development

Today, at Saatchi Gallery in London, we hosted the final event of the first Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe. The 20 finalists, selected from nearly 1000 submissions, came from 12 countries to showcase their games to an excited room of gamers, industry experts and press. Selected based on the votes of the attendees and the Google Play team, the Top 10 pitched in front of a jury of industry experts who chose the top winners.

Stay tuned for more pictures and a video of the event.

Without further ado, join us in congratulating the winners!

Winner & Unity prize winner:

Reigns, by Nerial, from the United Kingdom You are the King. For each decision, you only have two choices. Survive the exercise of power and the craziness of your advisors... as long as you can.

Runners up:

	The Battle of Polytopia, by Midjiwan AB, from Sweden A turn based strategic adventure. It's a game about ruling the world, fighting evil AI tribes, discovering new lands and mastering new technologies.
	Causality, by Loju, from the United Kingdom A puzzle about manipulating time, altering the sequence of events and changing the outcome of each level to help a group of astronauts find a route to safety.

The other top games selected by the event attendees and the Google Play team are:

	Blind Drive, by Lo-Fi People, from Israel You're driving blindfolded as a mysterious voice gives you suicidal commands on the phone. Survive on-rushing vehicles using only your hearing to guide you.
	Gladiabots, by GFX47, from France A competitive tactical game in which you design the AI of your robot squad. Use your own strategy, refine it online and fight for the top of the leaderboard.
	Happy Hop: Kawaii Jump, by Platonic Games, from Spain This isn't just an original one-tap endless hopper, it's also the cutest one. Ever wondered what's in the end of the rainbow? That would be Happy Hop.
	Lost in Harmony, by Digixart Entertainment, from France Experience music in a new way with the combination of rhythmic tapping and choreographic runner to go through two memorable journeys with Kaito and M.I.R.A.I.
	Paper Wings, by Fil Games, from Turkey A fast-paced arcade game which puts you in control of an origami bird. Avoid the hazards and collect the falling coins to keep your paper bird alive.
	Pinout, by Mediocre, from Sweden A breathtaking pinball arcade experience: race against time in a continuous journey through this canyon of pulsating lights and throbbing retro wave beats.
	Rusty Lake: Roots, by Rusty Lake, from Netherlands James Vanderboom's life drastically changes when he plants a special seed in the garden. Expand your bloodline by unlocking portraits in the tree of life.

Check out the prizes

The prizes of this contest were designed to help the winners showcase their art and grow their business on Android and Google Play, including:

• 
  YouTube influencer campaigns worth up to 100,000 EUR
  
  


• 
  Premium placements on Google Play
  
  


• 
  Tickets to Google I/O 2017 and other top industry events
  
  


• 
  Promotions on our channels
  
  


• 
  Special prizes for the best Unity game
  
  


• 
  And more!
  
  

What�s next?

The week is not over just yet for Indie games developers. Tomorrow we are hosting the Indie Games Workshop for all indie games developers from across EMEA in the new Google office in Kings Cross.

It�s been really inspiring to see the enthusiasm around this inaugural edition, and the quality and creativity of the indie games developed across the eligible European countries. We are looking forward to bringing a new edition of the contest to you in late 2017.

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Meet the 20 finalists of the Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe

Posted by Matteo Vallone, Google Play Games Business Development



Back in November, we launched the Google Play Indie Games Contest for developers from 15 European countries, to celebrate the passion and innovation of the indie community in the region. The contest will reward the winners with exposure to industry experts and players worldwide, as well as other prizes that will showcase their art and help them grow their business on Android and Google Play.



Thank you to the nearly 1000 of you who submitted high quality games in all types of genres! Your creativity, enthusiasm and dedication have once again impressed us and inspired us. We had a very fun time testing and judging the games based on fun, innovation, design excellence and technical and production quality, and it was challenging to select only 20 finalists:



Meet the 20 finalists

(In alphabetical order)

Blind Drive (coming soon) Lo-Fi People Israel	Causality (coming soon) Loju United Kingdom	Crap! I'm Broke: Out of Pocket Arcane Circus Netherlands	Egz Lonely Woof France	Ellipsis Salmi GmbH Germany
Gladiabots GFX47 France	Happy Hop: Kawaii Jump Platonic Games Spain	Hidden Folks (coming soon) Adriaan de Jongh Netherlands	Lichtspeer (coming soon) Lichthund Poland	Lost in Harmony Digixart Entertainment France
Mr Future Ninja (coming soon) Huijaus Studios Finland	Paper Wings Fil Games Turkey	PinOut Mediocre Sweden	Power Hover Oddrok Finland	Reigns Nerial United Kingdom
Rusty Lake: Roots Rusty Lake Netherlands	Samorost 3 Amanita Design Czech Republic	The Battle of Polytopia Midjiwan AB Sweden	twofold inc. Grapefrukt games Sweden	Unworded (coming soon) Bento Studio France

Check out the prizes



All the 20 finalists are getting:

• The opportunity to exhibit and showcase their game at the final event held at the Saatchi Gallery in London, on 16th February 2017.


• Promotion of their game on a London billboard for one month.


• Two tickets to attend a 2017 Playtime event. This is an invitation-only event for top apps and games developers on Google Play.


• One Pixel XL smartphone.

At the event at Saatchi, the finalists will also have a chance to make it to the next rounds and win additional prizes, including:

• YouTube influencer campaigns worth up to 100,000 EUR.


• Premium placements on Google Play.


• Tickets to Google I/O 2017 and other top industry events.


• Promotions on our channels.


• Special prizes for the best Unity game.


• And more!

Come support them at the final event



At the final event attendees will have a say on which 10 of these finalists will get to pitch their games to the jury, who will decide on the final contest winners who will receive the top prizes.



Register now to join us in London, meet the developers, check out their great games, vote for your favourites, and have fun with various industry experts and indie developers.







A big thank you again to everyone who entered and congratulations to the finalists. We look forward to seeing you at the Saatchi Gallery in London on 16th February.

Introducing the ExifInterface Support Library

Posted by Ian Lake, Developer Advocate

With the release of the href="https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/support-library/revisions.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#rev25-1-0">25.1.0 Support Library, there's a new entry in the family: the ExifInterface Support Library. With significant improvements introduced in Android 7.1 to the framework's href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">ExifInterface, it only made sense to make those available to all API 9+ devices via the Support Library's ExifInterface.

The basics are still the same: the ability to read and write href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Exif tags embedded within image files: now with 140 different attributes (almost 100 of them new to Android 7.1/this Support Library!) including information about the camera itself, the camera settings, orientation, and GPS coordinates.

Camera Apps: Writing Exif Attributes

For Camera apps, the writing is probably the most important - writing attributes is still limited to JPEG image files. Now, normally you wouldn't need to use this during the actual camera capturing itself - you'd instead be calling the Camera2 API href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/camera2/CaptureRequest.Builder.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#set(android.hardware.camera2.CaptureRequest.Key%3CT%3D,%20T)">CaptureRequest.Builder.set() with href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/camera2/CaptureRequest.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#JPEG_ORIENTATION">JPEG_ORIENTATION, href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/camera2/CaptureRequest.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#JPEG_GPS_LOCATION">JPEG_GPS_LOCATION or the equivalents in the Camera1 href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Camera.Parameters.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Camera.Parameters. However, using ExifInterface allows you to make changes to the file after the fact (say, removing the location information on the user's request).

Reading Exif Attributes

For the rest of us though, reading those attributes is going to be our bread-and-butter; this is where we see the biggest improvements.

Firstly, you can read Exif data from JPEG and raw images (specifically, DNG, CR2, NEF, NRW, ARW, RW2, ORF, PEF, SRW and RAF files). Under the hood, this was a major restructuring, removing all native dependencies and building an extensive test suite to ensure that everything actually works.

For apps that receive images from other apps with a content:// URI (such as those sent by apps that href="https://developer.android.com/about/versions/nougat/android-7.0-changes.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#sharing-files">target API 24 or higher), ExifInterface now works directly off of an InputStream; this allows you to easily extract Exif information directly out of content:// URIs you receive without having to create a temporary file. class="prettyprint">Uri uri; // the URI you've received from the other app
InputStream in;
try {
in = getContentResolver().openInputStream(uri);
ExifInterface exifInterface = new ExifInterface(in);
// Now you can extract any Exif tag you want
// Assuming the image is a JPEG or supported raw format
} catch (IOException e) {
// Handle any errors
} finally {
if (in != null) {
try {
in.close();
} catch (IOException ignored) {}
}
}

Note: ExifInterface will not work with remote InputStreams, such as those returned from a href="https://developer.android.com/reference/java/net/HttpURLConnection.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">HttpURLConnection. It is strongly recommended to only use them with content:// or file:// URIs.

For most attributes, you'd simply use the href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getAttributeInt(java.lang.String,%20int)">getAttributeInt(), href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getAttributeDouble(java.lang.String,%20double)">getAttributeDouble(), or href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getAttribute(java.lang.String)">getAttribute() (for Strings) methods as appropriate.

One of the most important attributes when it comes to displaying images is the image orientation, stored in the aptly-named href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#TAG_ORIENTATION">TAG_ORIENTATION, which returns one of the ORIENTATION_ constants. To convert this to a rotation angle, you can post-process the value. class="prettyprint">int rotation = 0;
int orientation = exifInterface.getAttributeInt(
ExifInterface.TAG_ORIENTATION,
ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_NORMAL);
switch (orientation) {
case ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_ROTATE_90:
rotation = 90;
break;
case ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_ROTATE_180:
rotation = 180;
break;
case ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_ROTATE_270:
rotation = 270;
break;
}

There are some helper methods to extract values from specific Exif tags. For location data, the href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getLatLong(float[])">getLatLong() method gives you the latitude and longitude as floats and href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getAltitude(double)">getAltitude() will give you the altitude in meters. Some images also embed a small thumbnail. You can check for its existence with href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#hasThumbnail()">hasThumbnail() and then extract the byte[] representation of the thumbnail with href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getThumbnail()">getThumbnail() - perfect to pass to href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/BitmapFactory.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#decodeByteArray(byte[],%20int,%20int)">BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray().

Working with Exif: Everything is optional

One thing that is important to understand with Exif data is that there are no required tags: each and every tag is optional - some services even specifically strip Exif data. Therefore throughout your code, you should always handle cases where there is no Exif data, either due to no data for a specific attribute or an image format that doesn't support Exif data at all (say, the ubiquitous PNGs or WebP images).

Add the ExifInterface Support Library to your project with the following dependency:

class="prettyprint">compile "com.android.support:exifinterface:25.1.0"

But when an Exif attribute is exactly what you need to prevent a mis-rotated image in your app, the ExifInterface Support Library is just what you need to #BuildBetterApps