作者 / Sameer Samat, Vice President, Product Management
Developers are our partners. When everyone's ingenuity and innovation are combined with our platform and tools, a pleasant experience serving billions of users around the world is born. Only by listening carefully to the developers’ feedback can we take each version of Android to the next level and make the mobile app store better. This article from April 2019 shared some of our updates to the Android API and Play policy based on developer feedback. Today, we want to further share some of the insights we have gained from developer feedback, and how we can improve Google Play and Android based on these insights. These insights mainly include:
Support developers to choose to publish their applications through multiple application stores on different platforms (mobile platforms, PCs and hosts). Each store has its own business model to compete in a healthy market;
Clarify our relevant policies and clarify who needs to use the Google Play billing system and who does not;
Ensure that all applications, including first-party and third-party applications, can be treated equally on our platform;
Allow developers to communicate directly with users;
Promote innovation and ensure that our policies contribute to new technologies that enhance the consumer experience.
We would like to share our views on the above content.
Shop choice
We believe that developers should have the right to choose how to distribute applications, and stores should strive to let consumers and developers choose themselves. Choice has always been the core purpose of Android, so Android users can always choose the apps they use, whether it's a keyboard, messaging app, phone dialer or app store.
The Android system has always allowed people to get apps from multiple app stores. In fact, most Android devices come with at least two app stores pre-installed at the factory, and consumers can also install additional app stores. Each store can determine its own business model and consumption functions. This openness means that even if the developer and Google do not agree on commercial terms, the developer can still publish on the Android platform. Therefore, games such as Fortnite can be downloaded directly from Epic’s store or other app stores (including Samsung’s Galaxy App Store).
In addition, some developers have given us feedback on how to make the user experience better when installing another app store on the device. In response to these feedbacks, we will make changes in Android 12 (the Android version that will be released next year) to make it easier for people to use other app stores on their devices, while working hard to continue Android’s existing security measures. We are now designing all related content and look forward to sharing more news with you in the future!
Clear billing policy
As mentioned earlier, each Android application store can determine its own business model and consumption features. For Google Play, users expect a safe, reliable, and smooth experience, and developers come to Play to get powerful tools and services to help them build and grow their businesses. Our developer policies are designed to help us achieve these expectations, and Google Play’s billing system is the cornerstone of our commitment. A trustworthy system can benefit consumers: They can purchase content from developers around the world safely, reliably, and smoothly. Google uses the world's leading security infrastructure to protect consumers' payment information through multi-layer security measures. For developers, Google Play's settlement system provides a simple way for billions of Android users to use their preferred local payment method to transact with developers.
Ensure user safety
https://privacy.google.com/your-security.html
We have always required developers who publish apps on Play to use Google Play’s settlement system if they provide in-app purchases of digital goods. We will also charge a certain percentage of service fees from the transaction amount. It should be noted that less than 3% of developers who publish applications on Google Play apply this policy. We will only charge service fees when developers charge users to download their apps or sell digital goods in apps. We think this approach is fair. This approach not only allows us to continue to reinvest in the platform, this business model also allows us and developers to succeed together.
payment
https://play.google.com/about/monetization-ads/payments/
However, the feedback we heard is that there are currently confusing aspects in our policy statement, and we need to more clearly indicate in the policy which types of transactions must use the Google Play settlement system. We want to ensure that our policy is clear, up-to-date, and applies fairly and consistently to all developers. Therefore, we have clarified the wording in the payment policy and more clearly stated that all developers who sell digital goods in their apps must Use Google Play’s billing system.
Developer Program Policy Preview: Payment
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9992660
This is not a new policy, and the intention of this long-term policy has always been the same. This clarification has no impact on the vast majority of developers who have apps on Google Play. In the past 12 months, less than 3% of developers who have apps on Play have sold digital goods, and of these 3% of developers, the vast majority (nearly 97%) are already Use Google Play’s billing system. For those developers who already have apps on Google Play and need to invest in technology to integrate our billing system, we don’t want to over-disrupt their work schedules, so we give a one-year period (as of September 30, 2021 Day) to let it complete all necessary updates. Of course, we will also ask Google apps that have not yet used the Google Play billing system to make necessary updates.
equality
Our policy applies to all apps published on Google Play, including Google’s own apps. We use the same criteria to decide which apps to promote on Google Play, whether it’s a third-party app or our own app. In fact, we often recommend apps from Google's competitors in the Editors Choice section, as long as these apps provide a good user experience. Similarly, our algorithm uses the same criteria for ranking third-party apps and games as Google’s own apps.
Communicate with customers
The developer told us that it is very important to have a direct conversation with the customer, and that this conversation cannot be severely restricted. As app developers, we ourselves fully agree with this statement, and our policy has always allowed you to do so.
Despite this, there are still developers asking whether they can directly communicate with customers about pricing, discounts, and other payment methods outside of the app via email or other channels. It should be noted that Google Play does not impose any restrictions on this communication outside of the developer's application. For example, they may offer products at a lower price than Google Play in another Android app store, or through their website.
We understand the importance of maintaining customer relationships. Therefore, we have always allowed developers to issue refunds to customers and provide other support services directly.
Enabling innovation
The developer community can always bring new and novel ideas. We have been listening to everyone’s feedback and adjusting our practices to ensure that we can promote various innovations together. For example, recent innovations in cloud gaming have brought brand-new gaming experiences that have also landed on Google Play, such as the Xbox cloud game launched by Microsoft in the Xbox Game Pass Android app.
Xbox Game Pass
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gamepass&hl=en_US
Please continue to provide feedback
We are very grateful for the feedback provided by the developer community, and we are convinced that the Android ecosystem is an exciting stage.
We are sincerely thrilled to see such success for developers such as Duolingo, Truecaller, Hyperconnect, Any.do, and Viber to successfully develop their business on Android and reach a diverse audience. These services make consumers happy, and we are also very happy to be able to build a platform to support these applications.
We also answered some common developer questions in today's second article, welcome to read.
Recommended reading
Click the screen at the end | read read the original article | instantly successful open sea journey on Google Play