Google I/O 2024: What’s New in Google Play
On May 14, Google presented I/O 2024, the big tech giant’s most important annual conference.
At the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, various mobile innovations were presented, including several updates concerning Google Play.
Therefore, this article will examine Google’s most important innovations and their impact on the world of apps in the upcoming years.
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Customizing Solutions for the Needs of Your App’s Category
First and foremost, Google decided to tailor specific challenges for each vertical app category (media, game, entertainment, etc.) to maximize the potential of each specific app.
1. Meeting the Specific Requirements of Your App Category
One of the main news for Google Play at I/O 2024 is a brand-new surface that developers could use as a preview to showcase content and enable cross-app continuation journeys.
Utilizing this space, developers can spotlight vital content from users’ installed apps and smoothly transition users into an immersive, full-screen experience filled with personalized recommendations and promotions. This surface can also reach new users by recommending your app and showcasing its most engaging content.
To access these benefits, professionals must install an Engage SDK integration, a client-side integration that leverages on-device APIs.
2. Google Play Games
In gaming, Google’s commitment to empowering developers remains the same. Google Play Games on PC has broadened its reach to over 140 markets, offering a catalog of more than 3,000 games, thus enabling developers to tap into a global audience across various devices.
Leveraging Play Points, developers can enhance gamer engagement by offering coupons, discounts, or exclusive in-game items while benefiting from improved performance reporting within Play Console.
Check our Jelly Juice Success Story to see how we work with mobile game apps.
A Quality and Security Experience
This year, Google made several updates designed to protect users and businesses, including SDK management tools, smoother launch processes, enhanced user security, and proactive ways to safeguard user trust and business integrity.
1. Google Play SDK Console
Another important news is that Google is opening the SDK Console (launched in 2021) to all SDKs as long as they come from a verifiable resource.
Via the console, SDK owners gain access to usage statistics and tools, empowering them to assist app developers in adopting SDK versions that address quality concerns and adhere to Play policies.
Google also added an option app that allows developers to share crash or ANR data with SDK owners directly via Play Console.
2. Enhanced App-release Tools
The new pre-review checks merge various existing quality assessments into a single user interface, facilitating the identification of prevalent policy and compatibility concerns before an app’s release.
Also, if last-minute adjustments are necessary, unwanted releases can now be discarded during the “Not yet sent for review” stage, minimizing the potential for inadvertent updates.
3. Updated Protections Against Unauthorized Access
The Play Integrity API aids in contrasting attacks, abuse, and unauthorized access by enabling verification that your app remains unaltered and is installed by Google Play on an authentic Android device. Here’s a breakdown of its key features:
- Verification of app integrity: Ensures that your app hasn’t been tampered with or modified, maintaining its integrity.
- Protection against abuse: Helps detect and prevent abusive behaviors or manipulations aimed at compromising your app.
- Authentication of installation source: Verifies that your app is installed from Google Play on a legitimate Android device, reducing the risk of unauthorized installations.
Expanded Methods for User Acquisition and Engagement
Google knows how crucial it is to reach the right audience for an app. That’s why the “Big G” developed various tools to help professionals target their ideal users, personalize their messaging, and create engaging experiences that drive downloads and retention.
1. Custom Store Listings
The store listing is an initial opportunity to make a favorable impression and attract new users. Various customization options are available to optimize conversions for diverse audiences.
Furthermore, listings can now be generated based on user search queries. Customizing store listings according to search keywords enhances relevance and enables targeting of users actively seeking the app’s benefits. Play Console provides keyword suggestions to assist in creating potentially impactful store listings.
2. Enhancing Engagement With Deep Links
Deep links serve as an effective method for boosting engagement by directing users straight to a pertinent page within your app. Here’s how they enhance user experience:
- Exploration of content: Users can directly access specific content within the app, eliminating the need for navigation.
- Task completion: Facilitates tasks such as scheduling a trip or continuing a shopping journey seamlessly from the linked page.
Revenue Optimization With Google Play Commerce
With over 2.5 billion users across the world, Google Play provides access to a vast global audience. Efforts these years have been concentrated on enhancing the ability to reach customers by simplifying the process of making secure and flawless purchases.
1. Expanded Payment Options
The extensive payment method library continues to expand, including conventional options like credit cards and over 300 local payment forms across more than 65 markets.
Pix in Brazil has been enabled, and support for UPI in India has been enhanced to streamline subscription purchases, ensuring the availability of preferred payment methods for hundreds of millions of customers in these markets.
Moreover, the capability for customers to make purchases on behalf of others has been extended. Customers within a Google family setup can now authorize their child’s Android purchases from any operating system.
In India, customers can now utilize a payment link shared through their preferred text messaging service or email to request a friend or family member outside their Google family group to purchase an app or in-app product.
2. Optimized Pricing
Determining the appropriate product pricing is crucial for attracting customers and optimizing revenue. Here are recent updates to pricing on Google Play:
- Autonomous price adjustments: Google Play now automatically adjusts price ranges to accommodate currency fluctuations relative to the US dollar.
- Notification for price adjustments: Professionals will receive a new Inbox notification in Play Console whenever a price adjustment for an in-app product is recommended.
- Increased pricing flexibility: Products on Google Play can now be priced as high as 999.99 US dollars or their local equivalent, providing developers with greater pricing options.
Have an Android app to promote? Check out 10 proven strategies for 2024.
3. Improved Purchase Experiences
Purchase experiences are being enhanced to offer customers increased guidance and flexibility while providing developers with tools to refine these experiences.
The Play Store has introduced new badges, including “best selling,” “trending,” and “popular,” to assist customers in making informed purchasing decisions.
Additionally, with the introduction of the installment subscriptions feature, developers can now offer customers the choice to pay for long-term subscriptions over time, potentially boosting signups and lifetime value. Results from our early access program demonstrated an 8% increase in total subscription signups and a 4% rise in user spending.
The new Play Billing Lab app facilitates the adoption and testing of features aimed at enhancing the customer experience for both one-time purchases and subscriptions.
This tool enables developers to test their integration with Play’s billing system, create test configurations without impacting real users, and experiment with country overrides and subscription lifecycle changes.
Conclusion
As usual, the I/O annual conference brought many interesting news for app marketers and users.
While Google mostly concentrates its effort on Gemini and AI projects in general, it still doesn’t leave its Play Store outdated, as all the novelties concerning the quality, the security, and the smoothness of the experience confirm this.
For other relevant news and articles about app marketing, check out our blog section and keep in touch with us on LinkedIn.
