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Google is introducing a host of updates on Good Play to help users discover and engage with “high quality” apps and games on larger screens.
“Large screens are growing in reach, with now over 250M active Android tablets, foldables, and ChromeOS devices. As demand continues to accelerate, we’re seeing users doing more than ever on large screens, from socializing and playing games, to multitasking and getting things done,” Google said in a post on its Developers blog.
“To help people get the most from their devices, we’re making big changes in Google Play to enable users to discover and engage with high quality apps and games,” it said.
It will be introducing three main updates to the store, including ranking and promotability changes, alerts for low quality apps, and device-specific ratings and reviews.
It has recently published its large screen app quality guidelines in addition to its core app for assisting great user experiences.
“It encompasses a holistic set of features, from basic compatibility requirements such as portrait and landscape support, to more differentiated requirements like keyboard and stylus capabilities,” it said.
It will be updating its featuring and ranking logic in Play on large screen devices in the coming months to prioritise high-quality apps and games based on these app quality guidelines.
“This will affect how apps are surfaced in search results and recommendations on the homepage, with the goal of helping users find the apps that are best optimised for their device. We will also be deepening our investment in editorial content across Play to highlight apps that have been optimised for large screens,” it further said.
For apps that don’t meet basic compatibility requirements, current alerts to users on large screens will be updated to help set expectations for how apps will look and function post-install.
This will help notify users about apps that may not work well on their large screen devices.
It will provide further updates on this later this year.
Device type ratings
As announced earlier, users will soon be able to see ratings and reviews split by device type (e.g. tablets and foldables, Chrome OS, Wear, or Auto).
“Where applicable, the default rating shown in Play will be that of the device type the user is using, to provide a better sense of the app experience on their device,” it said.
Developers will now be able to preview their ratings and reviews by device and can view their device-type breakdown in Play Console.
The features in Play will roll out gradually over the coming months, the tech giant said, advising developers to plan for large screen app quality enhancements ahead of these changes.
Google has been bullish on large screen devices. Most recently it introduced 12L, an update to Android 12 for Android’s larger screens.
The tech giant will roll out the update to select tablets and foldables with planned updates from Samsung, Lenovo and Microsoft starting later this year.
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