At its I/O developer conference, Google made numerous announcements including the introduction of Google Lens, Play Protect, and the Android O Beta Program, among other things. Another developer-focused announcement it made was regarding the new and updated features making their way to the Google Play Console.
The company noted that ever since the inception of Google Play Console back in 2012, it has consistently been adding new features to developer center with frequent updates. Through the Console, developers have been able to carry out A/B tests, reply to customer reviews, analyze app performance, and retrieve financial reports.
This has aided developers in expanding their reach. The company has shared several interesting statistics relevant to this, including:
- People in 190 countries have downloaded 82 billion apps from the Play Store last year
- Developers with more than 1 million monthly installs grew by 35% YoY
- Carrier billing has been made easier with 140 operators reaching over 900 million devices
- The number of people who make purchases from the Play Store has grown 30% YoY
To further help developers in maximizing their audience, Google has announced more features and updates for the Google Play Console. The statistics page has been updated with easier access to important data, which can be broken down by dimensions across any range of dates.
The company has also introduced Android Vitals, through which developers can fix bad behaviors of their apps such as App Not Responding (ANR), stability, battery usage, and rendering times. The ANRs and crashes page has also been updated with more detailed data.
Developers can now also monitor the rollout of their app as it happens, and view distributed data and reports across a range of devices, providing more granularity and control to developers so that they can make better-informed decisions about their apps. Pre-launch reports about alpha and beta tests of apps have also been improved while the publication of Android Instant Apps has been opened up to all developers. Google has also introduced app signing in the Play Console, which it details as follows:
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.
The company has also introduced user acquisition reports which details retained installer data, such as the location of "valuable" users, in order to aid the developer's marketing efforts. Similarly, financial reports are also being made available so developers can fully understand and analyze their revenue model, subscribers, and retention. Review analysis now supports more languages and allows developers to see how reviews have been updated. Lastly, the ability to report reviews which do not comply with Google's posting policies is being made available to developers.
Source: Google
