Posted by Aurash Mahbod, VP and GM, Games on Google Play Google Play is proud to be the home of over 200,000 games—many of which defined the mobile-first era. But as cross-platform becomes the standard for players, we are evolving our ecosystem to match the scale of your ambitions. In recent years, we focused on elevating Android gaming quality while significantly deepening our support for native PC titles . We know that maximizing your game’s reach across different platforms is complex. The Level Up program serves as your strategic roadmap, helping you prioritize optimizations that drive great experiences on Android. Building on this foundation, we’re doubling down on our investment to make Play the most accessible home for every category of play . We’re adding new tools for paid games and making the PC game discovery to purchase seamless. Keep reading to learn more about how we’re creating a bigger stage for your games . Scale your discovery across mobile and PC platforms Building a bigger stage starts with making your games easier to find—and easier to buy—no matter which device your players prefer. We’re expanding your reach by bringing cross-platform discovery directly to the mobile storefront. With the new PC section in the Games tab, your PC titles gain high visibility placement among our most active mobile players. The PC badge ensures your cross-platform investment is recognized. This creates more opportunities to acquire players on mobile and transition them seamlessly to your high-fidelity PC experience. PC in the Games tab and PC badging expands your game’s reach With ‘ buy once play anywhere ’ pricing, we’re making it easier to sell your games across different devices. If you choose to opt-in your mobile game for Google Play Games on PC, you can now offer a single price that covers both mobile and PC versions. We’re rolling out this feature in EAP with select games including Brotato: Premium . For PC-only games, players can now complete the full purchase journey on Google Play Games on PC with the same trusted security and privacy standards they expect from Google Play. ' Buy once play anywhere’ pricing to sell your games across devices Lower the purchase barrier with Game Trials To help you convert high-intent buyers with less friction, we’re introducing Game Trials , a feature that enables players to experience your game for a limited time before making a purchase on mobile. Accessible directly from your game’s store listing, Game Trials provides a fast-track for players to start exploring your world with a single tap. Game trials are now in testing with select titles and we’ll roll it out to more titles soon. To ensure this is low maintenance for you, Game Trials is added directly into your
Android
App Bundle. This enables you to offer a high quality trial without the burden of a separate codebase or a demo version of your app. Play ensures trials are secure and seamless . Game Trials are once per user and protects your game while the trial is active. When it ends, players can purchase your game and keep their progress. We’re also working on tools that will give you more control —such as specifying a custom time limit or an in-game event to conclude the trial. Game Trial for DREDGE to help convert high-intent buyers Diversify your revenue with a dedicated player community on Play Pass Play Pass is another way to diversify revenue and grow your player audience. It has been a strong launchpad for indie hits such as Isle of Arrows , Slay the Spire , and Dead Cells . With Play Pass, you can reach highly dedicated players seeking a more curated gaming experience, free of ads and in-app purchases. To help you deepen engagement, paid titles on Play Pass can now opt in to Google Play Games on PC — making it easy for players to find and play your games on a larger screen. Later this year, you can nominate your game through a streamlined opt-in process directly in Play Console. Drive long term sales with Wishlists and Discounts Wishlists and Discounts are one of the most effective ways to capture player intent and drive long term sales. To support players at every stage of their purchase journey, we’re integrating them directly into Play. Players can save titles to their wishlist and manage them from library settings. To keep your game top-of-mind, players will receive automated notifications for your latest discounts — starting with mobile and expanding soon to PC games. Wishlist and discount notifications drives long term sales, rolling out today How leading studios are finding a new path to success on Play We’re thrilled to welcome Sledding Game , 9 Kings , Potion Craft, Moonlight Peaks, an d Low Budget Repairs to Play [1] . It marks an exciting expansion of our catalog and a step forward in our mission to build a bigger gaming ecosystem for all
developers
. This growth is fueled by our developer community, whose feedback continues to shape our roadmap and help us better support your success. Sledding Game, 9 Kings, Potion Craft, Moonlight Peaks, and Low Budget Repairs is coming to Play. That mission brings us to GDC and the Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards [2] , where the next generation of games awaits! This year, we’re inviting you to come along for the ride as we go backstage to chat with the finalists and winners, sharing the moments of triumph and the creative stories behind their development. Not joining us at GDC? You can take the next step in your journey to launch your game on Google Play today . 1. Sledding Game, 9 Kings, Potion Craft, and Moonlight Peaks are coming to Google Play in 2026. Low Budget Repairs is scheduled for release in 2027. [Back] 2. Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards is hosted by Game
Developers
Conference (GDC) and requires a valid GDC pass for entry. [Back]
Posted by Prateek Batra, Developer Relations Engineer, Android Adaptive Apps Beyond Phones: How JioHotstar Built an Adaptive UX JioHotstar is a leading streaming platform in India, serving a user base exceeding 400 million. With a vast content library encompassing over 330,000 hours of video on demand (VOD) and real-time delivery of major sporting events, the platform operates at a massive scale. T o help ensure a premium experience for its vast audience, JioHotstar elevated the viewing experience by optimizing their app for foldables and tablets. They accomplished this by following Google’s adaptive app guidance and utilizing resources like samples , codelabs , cookbooks , and documentation to help create a consistently seamless and engaging experience across all display sizes. JioHotstar's large screen challenge JioHotstar offered an excellent user experience on standard phones and the team wanted to take advantage of new form factors. To start, the team evaluated their app against the large screen app quality guidelines to understand the optimizations required to extend their user experience to foldables and tablets. To achieve Tier 1 large screen app status, the team implemented two strategic updates to adapt the app across various form factors and differentiate on foldables. By addressing the unique challenges posed by foldable and tablet devices, JioHotstar aims to deliver a high-quality and immersive experience across all display sizes and aspect ratios. What they needed to do JioHotstar’s user interface, designed primarily for standard phone displays, encountered challenges in adapting hero image aspect ratios, menus, and show screens to the diverse screen sizes and resolutions of other form factors. This often led to image cropping, letterboxing, low resolution, and unutilized space, particularly in landscape mode. To help fully leverage the capabilities of tablets and foldables and deliver an optimized user experience across these device types, JioHotstar focused on refining the UI to ensure optimal layout flexibility, image rendering, and navigation across a wider range of devices. What they did For a better viewing experience on large screens, JioHotstar took the initiative to enhance its app by incorporating WindowSizeClass and creating optimized layouts for compact, medium and extended widths. This allowed the app to adapt its user interface to various screen dimensions and aspect ratios, ensuring a consistent and visually appealing UI across different devices. JioHotstar followed this pattern using Material 3 Adaptive library to know how much space the app has available. First invoking the currentWindowAdaptiveInfo() function , then using new layouts accordingly for the three window size classes: val sizeClass = currentWindowAdaptiveInfo().windowSizeClass if (sizeClass.isWidthAtLeastBreakpoint(WIDTH_DP_EXPANDED_LOWER_BOUND)) { showExpandedLayout() } else if (sizeClass.isHeightAtLeastBreakpoint(WIDTH_DP_MEDIUM_LOWER_BOUND)) { showMediumLayout() } else { showCompactLayout() } The breakpoints are in order, from the biggest to the smallest, as internally the API checks for with a greater or equal then, so any width that is at least greater or equal then EXPANDED will always be greater than MEDIUM . JioHotstar is able to provide the premium experience unique to foldable devices: Tabletop Mode . This feature conveniently relocates the video player to the top half of the screen and the video controls to the bottom half when a foldable device is partially folded for a handsfree experience. To accomplish this, also using the Material 3 Adaptive library, the same currentWindowAdaptiveInfo() can be used to query for the tabletop mode. Once the device is held in tabletop mode, a change of layout to match the top and bottom half of the posture can be done with a column to place the player in the top half and the controllers in the bottom half: val isTabletTop = currentWindowAdaptiveInfo().windowPosture.isTabletop if (isTabletopMode) { Column { Player(Modifier.weight(1f)) Controls(Modifier.weight(1f)) } } else { usualPlayerLayout() } JioHotstar is now meeting the Large Screen app quality guidelines for Tier 1. The team leveraged adaptive app guidance, utilizing samples , codelabs , cookbooks , and documentation to incorporate these recommendations. To further improve the user experience, JioHotstar increased touch target sizes, to the recommended 48dp, on video discovery pages, ensuring accessibility across large screen devices. Their video details page is now adaptive, adjusting to screen sizes and orientations. They moved beyond simple image scaling, instead leveraging window size classes to detect window size and density in real time and load the most appropriate hero image for each form factor, helping to enhance visual fidelity. Navigation was also improved, with layouts adapting to suit different screen sizes. Now users can view their favorite content from JioHotstar on large screens devices with an improved and highly optimized viewing experience. Achieving Tier 1 large screen app status with Google is a milestone that reflects the strength of our shared vision. At JioHotstar, we have always believed that optimizing for large screen devices goes beyond adaptability, it’s about elevating the viewing experience for audiences who are rapidly embracing foldables, tablets, and connected TVs. Leveraging Google's Jetpack libraries and guides allowed us to combine our insights on content consumption with their expertise in platform innovation. This collaboration allowed both teams to push boundaries, address gaps, and co-create a seamless, immersive experience across every screen size. Together, we’re proud to bring this enhanced experience to millions of users and to set new benchmarks in how India and the world experience streaming. Sonu Sanjeev Senior Software Development Engineer
Android Developers Blog··4 min read
Matched "Android Developers Blog"•Found in Description
Posted by Sam Bright – VP & GM, Google Play + Developer Ecosystem Hi everyone, Thank you for making 2025 another amazing year for Google Play. Together, we’ve built Play into something much more than a store—it’s a dynamic ecosystem powered by your creativity. This year, our focus was ensuring Play continues to be the best destination for people to discover incredible content and enjoy rewarding gaming experiences . We're incredibly proud of the progress we've made alongside you, and we’re excited to celebrate those who pushed the boundaries of what’s possible—like the winners of our Best of 2025 awards . Watch our recap video to see how we’ve made Play even more rewarding for your business, or read on for a more in-depth look back on the year. Evolving Play to be more than a store This year, we focused on evolving Play into a true destination for discovery where billions of people around the world can find and enjoy experiences that make life more productive and delightful. Making Play the best destination for your games business Just a few months ago, we shared our vision for a more unified experience that brings more fun to gaming . Today, players often jump between different platforms to discover, play, and get rewarded. Our goal is to connect these journeys to create the best experience for players and, consequently, grow your business. Our first steps include these key updates: A new Gamer Profile that tracks cross-game stats, streaks, and achievements, customizable with a Gen AI Avatar. Integrated Rewards across mobile and PC that give players access to VIP experiences like our Four Days of Fantastic Rewards at San Diego Comic-Con , Diamond District experience on Roblox , and Play’s own treasure-hunt mini-game Diamond Valley alongside new Play Games Leagues where players can compete in their favorite games, climb leaderboards, and win Play Points rewards. The new Play Games Sidekick , a helpful in-game overlay that curates and organizes relevant gaming info, and provides direct access to Gemini Live for real-time AI-powered guidance in the game. We recently rolled out the open beta to developers, and we encourage you to start testing the sidekick in your games and share your feedback. Integrated gameplay across devices is now fully realized as Google Play Games on PC has graduated from beta to general availability, solidifying our commitment to cross-platform play and making our catalog of over 200,000 titles available across mobile and PC. Play Games Sidekick is a new in-game overlay that gives players instant access to their rewards, offers, and achievements, driving higher engagement for your game. To help you get the most out of this unified gaming experience, we introduced the Google Play Games Level Up program, a new way to unlock greater success for your business. For titles that meet core user experience guidelines, you can unlock a powerful suite of benefits including the ability to: Re-engage players on the new You tab, a new personalized destination on the Play Store that is designed to help you re-engage and retain players by showcasing content and rewards from recently played games in one dedicated space. You can utilize engagement tools in Play Console to feature your latest events, offers, and updates. Maximize your game’s reach with prominent boosts across the store, including featuring opportunities, Play Points boosters and quests, and enhanced visibility on editorial surfaces like the Games Home and Play Points Home. You tab is a personalized destination designed to help you re-engage and retain players by showcasing your latest events, offers, and updates. Unlocking more discovery and engagement for your apps and its content Last year, we shared our vision for a content-rich Google Play that has already delivered strong results. Year-over-year, Apps Home has seen over an 18% increase in average monthly visitors with apps seeing a 9% growth in acquisitions and double-digit growth* in app spend for those monetizing on Google Play. We introduced even more updates to elevate discovery and engagement on and off the store. Curated spaces , launched last year, have been a success, fostering routine engagement by delivering daily, locally relevant content (such as football highlights in Brazil, cricket in India, and comics in Japan) directly to the Apps Home. Building on this, we expanded to new categories and locations, including a new entertainment-focused space in Korea . Curated spaces make it easier to find and engage with local interests. We significantly increased timely, relevant content on Google Play through Spotlight and new topic browse pages . Spotlight, located at the top of Apps Home, offers seasonal content feeds—like Taylor Swift’s recent album launch or holiday movie guides—in a new, immersive way to connect users with current cultural moments. Concurrently, new topic browse pages were integrated across the store in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, allowing content deep dives into over 100,000 shows and movies. Spotlight offers an immersive experience connecting users with relevant apps during current cultural moments. Last year, we introduced Engage SDK to help you deliver personalized content to users across surfaces and seamlessly guide them into the relevant in-app experiences. Integrating it unlocks surfaces like Collections , our immersive full-screen experience bringing content directly to the user's home screen. This year, we rolled out updates to expand your content’s reach even further: Engage SDK content expanded to the Play Store this summer, enabling seamless re-engagement across Apps Home and the new You tab. Rolled out to more markets, including Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, and Korea . Supporting you throughout your app lifecycle In addition to evolving the store, we’ve continued to build on our powerful toolset to support you at every stage, from testing and release to growth and monetization. Helping you deliver high-quality, trusted user experiences We launched key updates in Android Studio and Play Console to help you build more stable and compliant apps. Policy insights in Android Studio help you catch potential violations early by showing in-context guidance, such as policy summaries and best practices, whenever code related to a Google Play policy is detected. You can now halt fully rolled-out releases to stop the distribution of problematic app versions through Play Console and the Publishing API. We also added new Android vitals performance metrics , including low memory kill metrics which provides device-specific insights to resolve stability problems and excessive partial wake lock metrics to help you address battery drain. New Android vitals metrics h elp you resolve stability problems and address battery drain. Boosting your productivity and workflow We refined the Play Console experience to make managing your app and your marketing content more efficient. We put your most essential insights front and center with a redesigned app dashboard and overview pages . To repurpose creative content across Play Console more easily, we launched an asset library that lets you upload from Google Drive, organize with tags, and crop existing visuals. You can now automatically translate app strings with Gemini at no cost. This feature eliminates manual translation work for new releases, making updates seamless. You remain in full control with the ability to preview translations using a built-in emulator, and can easily edit or disable the service. Translate app strings automatically with Gemini, while maintaining full control for previewing and editing. Maximizing your revenue with secure, frictionless payments We introduced new features focused on driving purchases and maximizing subscription revenue globally. We’re improving purchase conversion globally with over 800 million users now ready to buy . We launched features that encourage users to set up payment methods early, provide AI-powered payment method recommendations, and expanded our payment library to support more local payment methods globally. To maximize recurring revenue from over 400 million paid subscriptions, we introduced multi-product checkout , allowing you to sell base subscriptions and add-ons under a simple, single transaction. To combat churn, we began showcasing subscription benefits in more places and provided you with more flexible options like extended grace periods and account holds for declined payments, which has proven effective in reducing involuntary churn by an average of 10%* . To help reduce voluntary churn, we’re showcasing your subscriptions benefits across Play. Investing in our app and game community with developer programs We’re proud to invest in programs for app and game companies around the world to help you grow and succeed on Play. Google Play Apps Accelerator : We’ve opened submissions for our program that will help early-stage app companies scale their business. Selected companies from over 80 eligible countries will join a 12-week accelerator starting in March 2026, where they can learn more about creating high-quality apps, go-to-market strategies, user acquisition, and more. Submissions are still open for our 12-week accelerator, which starts in March 2026. Apply by January 7, 2026 for consideration. Indie Games Fund (Latin America): Now in its fourth year, this fund provides support to 10 promising game studios in Latin America with funding and hands-on support from Google Play. In October, we announced the 2025 recipients. ChangGoo Program (South Korea): Now in its seventh year, this program works with over 100 Korean mobile app and game startups to foster their growth and expansion in collaboration with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korean Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED). Google Play x Unity Game Developer Training Program (Indonesia): The third edition launched in April, offering a 6-month online curriculum, meetups, and mentorship for Indonesian game developers in partnership with Indonesia’s Ministry of Creative Economy and the Indonesian Gaming Association. Google Play x Unity Game Developer Training Program (India): The first India cohort kicked off in November with 500 aspiring and professional game developers. The 6-month journey provides online curriculum and meetups in partnership with GDAI and the govt of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Google for Startups Accelerator program (India): We provided Seed to Series-A AI-powered app startups in India with insights on the latest AI advancements, mentorship, and expert guidance. Protecting your business and our ecosystem At the heart of all the progress we’ve made this year is a foundation of trust and security. We're always innovating to make Play safer for everyone—so users can trust every app they download and so you can keep building a thriving business. To offer stronger protection for your business and users, we continued to enhance the Play Integrity API and our anti-fraud systems. On average, apps using Play Integrity features see 80% lower unauthorized usage, and our efforts have safeguarded top apps using Play Billing from $2.9 billion in fraud and abuse in the last year. Automatically fix user issues: New Play in-app remediation prompts in Play Integrity API automatically guide users to fix common problems like network issues, outdated Google Play Services, or device integrity flags, reducing integration complexity and getting users back to a good state faster. Combat repeat bad actors: Device recall is a powerful new tool that lets you store and recall limited data associated with a device, even if the device is reset, helping protect your business model from repeat bad actors. Strengthen revenue protection: We've introduced stronger protections against abuse, including refining pricing arbitrage detection and enhancing protection against free trial and intro pricing abuse for subscriptions, helping your business models remain profitable. With in-app remediation prompts, Play automatically handles a wide range of issues to guide your users back to a good state. For a full breakdown of new ways we’re keeping the ecosystem safe, check out our deep-dive blog post here . Thank you for your partnership This is an incredible time for Google Play. We’ve made huge strides together – your passion, creativity, and feedback throughout 2025 has made Play that much stronger. We’re grateful to work alongside the best developer community in the world, and we look forward to unlocking even greater success together in the new year. Happy holidays! Sam Bright VP & GM, Google Play + Developer Ecosystem * Source: Internal Google data
Posted by Dom Elliott – Principal Product Manager, Google Play and Eric Lynch - Senior Product Manager, Android Security In the mobile ecosystem, abuse can threaten your revenue, growth, and user trust. To help developers thrive, Google Play offers a resilient threat detection service, Play Integrity API . Play Integrity API helps you verify that interactions and server requests are genuine—coming from your unmodified app on a certified Android device, installed by Google Play. The impact is significant: apps using Play integrity features see 80% lower unauthorized usage on average compared to other apps. Today, leaders across diverse categories—including Uber, TikTok, Stripe, Kabam, Wooga, Radar.com, Zimperium, Paytm, and Remini—use it to help safeguard their businesses. We’re continuing to improve the Play Integrity API, making it easier to integrate, more resilient against sophisticated attacks, and better at recovering users who don’t meet integrity standards or encounter errors with new Play in-app remediation prompts. Detect threats to your business The Play Integrity API offers verdicts designed to detect specific threats that impact your bottom line during critical interactions. Unauthorized access : The accountDetails verdict helps you determine whether the user installed or paid for your app or game on Google Play. Code tampering : The appIntegrity verdict helps you determine whether you're interacting with your unmodified binary that Google Play recognizes. Risky devices and emulated environments : The deviceIntegrity verdict helps you determine whether your app is running on a genuine Play Protect certified Android device or a genuine instance of Google Play Games for PC. Unpatched devices : For devices running Android 13 and higher, MEETS_STRONG_INTEGRITY response in the deviceIntegrity verdict helps you determine if a device has applied recent security updates. You can also opt in to deviceAttributes to include the attested Android SDK version in the response. Risky access by other apps: The appAccessRiskVerdict helps you determine whether apps are running that could be used to capture the screen, display overlays, or control the device (for example, by misusing the accessibility permission). This verdict automatically excludes apps that serve genuine accessibility purposes. Known malware: The playProtectVerdict helps you determine whether Google Play Protect is turned on and whether it has found risky or dangerous apps installed on the device. Hyperactivity: The recentDeviceActivity level helps you determine whether a device has made an anomalously high volume of integrity token requests recently, which could indicate automated traffic and could be a sign of attack. Repeat abuse and reused devices: deviceRecall (beta) helps you determine whether you're interacting with a device that you've previously flagged, even if your app was reinstalled or the device was reset. With device recall, you can customize the repeat actions you want to track. The API can be used across Android form factors including phones, tablets, foldables, Android Auto, Android TV, Android XR, ChromeOS, Wear OS, and on Google Play Games for PC. Make the most of Play Integrity API Apps and games have found success with the Play Integrity API by following the security considerations and taking a phased approach to their anti-abuse strategy. Step 1: Decide what you want to protect : Decide what actions and server requests in your apps and games are important to verify and protect. For example, you could perform integrity checks when a user is launching the app, signing in, joining a multiplayer game, generating AI content, or transferring money. Step 2: Collect integrity verdict responses : Perform integrity checks at important moments to start collecting verdict data, without enforcement initially. That way you can analyze the responses for your install base and see how they correlate with your existing abuse signals and historical abuse data. Step 3: Decide on your enforcement strategy : Decide on your enforcement strategy based on your analysis of the responses and what you are trying to protect. For example, you could change risky traffic at important moments to protect sensitive functionality. The API offers a range of responses so you can implement a tiered enforcement strategy based on the trust level you give to each combination of responses. Step 4: Gradually rollout enforcement and support your users: Gradually roll out enforcement. Have a retry strategy when verdicts have issues or are unavailable and be prepared to support good users who have issues. The new Play in-app remediation prompts, described below, make it easier than ever to get users with issues back to a good state. NEW: Let Play recover users with issues automatically Deciding how to respond to different integrity signals can be complex, you need to handle various integrity responses and API error codes (like network issues or outdated Play services). We’re simplifying this with new Play in-app remediation prompts . You can show a Google Play prompt to your users to automatically fix a wide range of issues directly within your app. This reduces integration complexity, ensures a consistent user interface, and helps get more users back to a good state. GET_INTEGRITY automatically detects the issue (in this example, a network error) and resolves it. You can trigger the GET_INTEGRITY dialog, available in Play Integrity API library version 1.5.0+, after a range of issues to automatically guide the user through the necessary fixes including: Unauthorized access: GET_INTEGRITY guides the user back to a Play licensed response in accountDetails . Code tampering: GET_INTEGRITY guides the user back to a Play recognized response in appIntegrity . Device integrity issues: GET_INTEGRITY guides the user on how to get back to the MEETS_DEVICE_INTEGRITY state in deviceIntegrity . Remediable error codes: GET_INTEGRITY resolves remediable API errors, such as prompting the user to fix network connectivity or update Google Play Services. We also offer specialized dialogs including GET_STRONG_INTEGRITY (which works like GET_INTEGRITY while also getting the user back to the MEETS_STRONG_INTEGRITY state with no known malware issues in the playProtectVerdict ), GET_LICENSED (which gets the user back to a Play licensed and Play recognized state), and CLOSE_UNKNOWN_ACCESS_RISK and CLOSE_ALL_ACCESS_RISK (which prompt the user to close potentially risky apps). Choose modern integrity solutions In addition to Play Integrity API, Google offers several other features to consider as part of your overall anti-abuse strategy . Both Play Integrity API and Play’s automatic protection offer user experience and developer benefits for safeguarding app distribution. We encourage existing apps to migrate to these modern integrity solutions instead of using the legacy Play licensing library . Automatic protection: Prevent unauthorized access with Google Play’s automatic protection and ensure users continue getting your official app updates. Turn it on and Google Play will automatically add an installer check to your app’s code, with no developer integration work required. If your protected app is redistributed or shared through another channel, then the user will be prompted to get your app from Google Play. Eligible Play developers also have access to Play’s advanced anti-tamper protection, which uses obfuscation and runtime checks to make it harder and costlier for attackers to modify and redistribute protected apps. Android platform key attestation: Play Integrity API is the recommended way to benefit from hardware-backed Android platform key attestation . Play Integrity API takes care of the underlying implementation across the device ecosystem, Play automatically mitigates key-related issues and outages, and you can use the API to detect other threats. Developers who directly implement key attestation instead of relying on Play Integrity API should prepare for the upcoming Android Platform root certificate rotation in February 2026 to avoid disruption (developers using Play Integrity API do not need to take any action). Firebase App Check : Developers using Firebase can use Firebase App Check to receive an app and device integrity verdict powered by Play Integrity API on certified Android devices, along with responses from other platform attestation providers. To detect all other threats and use other Play features, integrate Play Integrity API directly. reCAPTCHA Enterprise : Enterprise customers looking for a complete fraud and bot management solution can purchase reCAPTCHA Enterprise for mobile. reCAPTCHA Enterprise uses some of Play Integrity API’s anti-abuse signals, and combines them with reCAPTCHA signals out of the box. Safeguard your business today With a strong foundation in hardware-backed security and new automated remediation dialogs simplifying integration, the Play Integrity API is an essential tool for protecting your growth. Get started with the Play Integrity API documentation .
Android Developers Blog··7 min read
Matched "Android Developers Blog"•Found in Description
Posted by Karan Jhavar - Product Manager, Android Frameworks, Dan Brown - Product Manager, Google Play, and Eric Brenner - Software Engineer, Google Play A great user experience is built on a foundation of strong technical performance. We are committed to helping you create stable, responsive, and efficient apps that users love. Excessive battery drain is top of mind for your users, and together, we are taking significant steps to help you build more power-efficient apps. Earlier this year, we introduced a new beta metric in Android vitals, excessive partial wake locks , to help you identify and address sources of battery drain. This initial beta metric was co-developed in close collaboration with Samsung , combining their deep, real-world insights into user experience with battery consumption with Android's platform data. We want to thank you for providing invaluable feedback during the beta period. Powered by your input and our continued collaboration with Samsung, we have further refined the algorithm to be even more accurate and representative. We are excited to announce that this refined metric is now generally available as a new core vitals metric to all developers in Android vitals. We have defined a bad behavior threshold for excessive wake locks. Starting March 1, 2026, if your title does not meet this quality threshold, we may exclude the title from prominent discovery surfaces such as recommendations. In some cases, we may display a warning on your store listing to indicate to users that your app may cause excessive battery drain. GOOGLE PLAY'S CORE TECHNICAL QUALITY METRICS To maximize visibility on Google Play, keep your app below the bad behavior thresholds for these metrics. User-perceived crash rate The percentage of daily active users who experienced at least one crash that is likely to have been noticeable User-perceived ANR rate The percentage of daily active users who experienced at least one ANR that is likely to have been noticeable Excessive battery usage The percentage of watch face sessions where battery usage exceeds 4.44% per hour New: Excessive partial wake locks The percentage of user sessions where cumulative, non-exempt wake lock usage exceeds 2 hours Excessive partial wake locks newly join the technical quality bars that Play expects all titles to maintain for a great user experience This is the first in a series of new metrics designed to provide deeper insight into your app's resource utilization, enabling you to improve the experience for your users across the entire Android ecosystem. 1. Aligning our definition of excessive wake locks with user expectations Apps can hold wake locks to prevent the user's device from entering sleep mode, letting the apps perform background work while the screen is off. We consider a user session excessive if it holds more than 2 cumulative hours of non-exempt wake locks in a 24 hour period. These excessive sessions are a heavy contributor to battery drain. A wake lock is exempted if it is a system held wake lock that offers clear user benefits that cannot be further optimized, such as audio playback or user-initiated data transfer. The bad behaviour threshold is crossed when 5% of an app’s user sessions over the last 28 days are excessive. If your app exceeds this threshold, you will be alerted directly on your Android vitals overview page . You can read more information about our definition on the Android Developer pages . Android vitals will alert you to excessive wake lock issues and provide a table of wake lock tags to P90/ P99 duration to help you identify the source by wake lock name. To help you understand your app’s partial wake lock usage, we are enhancing the excessive partial wake locks page in Android vitals with a new wake lock names table. This table breaks down wake lock sessions by their specific tag names and durations, allowing you to easily identify long wake locks in your local development environment, like Android Studio, for easier debugging. You should investigate any wake locks with P90 or P99 durations above 60 minutes. 2. Excessive wake locks and their impact on Google Play visibility If your title exceeds the bad behavior threshold for excessive wake locks, it may be ineligible for some discovery surfaces where users find new apps and games. In some cases, we may also show a warning on your store listing to inform users that your app may cause their device's battery to drain faster. Users may see a warning on your store listing if your app exceeds the bad behavior threshold. Note: The exact text and design are subject to change. We know making technical changes to your app’s code and how it works can be time consuming, so we are making the metric available for you to diagnose and fix potential issues now, with time before the Store visibility changes begin, starting from March 1, 2026. 3. What to do next We encourage you to take the following steps to ensure your app delivers a great experience for users: Visit Android vitals : Review your app's performance on the new excessive partial wake locks metric. The metric is now visible to all developers whose apps have wake lock sessions. Discover excessive partial wake locks : Use the new wake lock names table to identify excessive partial wake locks. Consult the documentation: For detailed guidance on best practices and fixing common issues, please check out our technical blog post , technical video and updated developer documentation on wake locks . Thank you for your continued partnership in building high-quality, performant experiences that users can rely on every day.
Posted by Robbie McLachlan - Developer Marketing In our latest #WeArePlay stories, we meet the founders building apps and games that are making health and wellness fun and easy for everyone on Google Play. From getting heavy sleepers jumping into their mornings, to turning mental wellness into an immersive adventure game. Here are a few of our favorites: Jay, founder of Delightroom Seoul, South Korea With over 90 million downloads, Jay‘s app Alarmy helps heavy sleepers to get moving with smart, challenge-based alarms. While studying computer science, Jay’s biggest challenge wasn’t debugging code, it was waking up for his morning classes. This struggle sparked an idea: what if there were an app that could help anyone get out of bed? Jay built a basic version and showcased it at a tech event, where it quickly drew attention. That prototype evolved into Alarmy , an app that uses creative missions, like solving math problems, doing squats, or snapping a photo, to get people moving so they fully wake up. Now available in over 30 languages and 170+ countries, Jay and his team are expanding beyond alarms, adding sleep tracking and wellness features to help even more people start their day right. Ellie and Hazel , co-founders of Mind Monsters Games Cambridge, UK Ellie and Hazel’s game, Betwixt, makes mental wellness more fun by using an interactive story to reduce anxiety. While working in London’s tech scene and later writing about psychology, Ellie noticed a pattern: many people turned to video games to ease stress but struggled to engage with traditional meditation. That’s when she came up with the idea to combine the two. While curating a book on mental health, she met Hazel—a therapist, former world champion boxer, and game lover and together they created Betwixt , an interactive fantasy adventure that guides players on a journey of self-discovery. By blending storytelling with evidence-based techniques, the game helps reduce anxiety and promote well-being. Now, with three new projects in development, Ellie and Hazel strive to turn play into a mental health tool. Kevin and Robin, co-founders of MapMyFitness Boulder (CO), U.S. Kevin and Robin’s app, MapMyFitness, helps a global community of runners and cyclists map their routes and track their training. Growing up across the Middle East, the Philippines, and Africa, Kevin developed a fascination with maps. In San Diego, while training for his second marathon, he built a simple MapMyRun website to map his routes. When other runners joined, former professional cyclist Robin reached out with a vision to also help cyclists discover and share maps. Together they founded MapMyFitness in 2007 and launched MapMyRide soon after, blending Kevin’s technical expertise and Robin's athletic know-how. Today, the MapMy suite powers millions of walkers, runners, and riders with adaptive training plans, guided workouts, live safety tracking, and community challenges—all in support of their mission to “get everybody outside". Discover more #WeArePlay stories from founders across the globe.
Posted by Paul Feng, VP of Product Management, Google Play Last month, we shared new updates showcasing our evolving vision for Google Play : a place where people can discover the content and experiences they love and where you can build and grow sustainable businesses. Our commitment to your success is at the heart of our continued investments. Today, we're excited to introduce a new bundle of tools and programs designed to enhance your productivity and accelerate your growth. From simplifying technical integration and localization, to offering deeper insights and creating powerful new ways to engage your audience these features will help streamline your development lifecycle. Watch our latest updates in The Android Show segment below or continue reading. You can also catch up on our latest Android developments by watching the full show . Streamline your development and operations with new tools We're launching new tools to remove friction from your tedious development tasks by helping you validate deep links and scale to new markets with Gemini-powered AI. Simplify deep link validation with a built-in emulator Troubleshooting deep links can be complex and time-consuming so we’re excited to launch a new, streamlined experience that allows you to instantly validate your deep links directly within Play Console . This means you can use a built-in emulator to test a deep link and immediately see the expected user experience on the spot, just as if someone clicked the URL on a real device. Instantly validate your deep links using the new built-in emulator Reach a global audience with Gemini-powered localization We’re making it easier to bring your app or game to a global audience by simplifying localization. With our latest translation service, we've integrated the power of Gemini into Play Console to offer high-quality translations for your app strings, at no cost. This service automatically translates new app bundles into your selected languages, accelerating your title to new markets. Most importantly, you always remain in full control with the ability to preview the translated app with a built-in emulator and easily edit or disable translations. Drive growth and engagement with AI-powered insights and You tab We're launching new ways to help you reach and retain users, Including AI-powered insights and the new You tab for re-engagement. Get faster insights with automated chart summaries To help you spend less time interpreting data and more time acting on key insights, a new Gemini-powered feature on the Statistics page automatically generates descriptions of your charts. These summaries help you quickly understand key trends and events that might be affecting your metrics. For developers who use a screen reader, this feature also provides access to reporting in a way you haven't had before. Get faster insights with new Gemini-powered chart summaries Access objective-related metrics and actionable advice for audience growth Earlier this year, we launched objective-based overview pages in Play Console to consolidate your key metrics, app performance, and actionable steps across essential workflows. With dedicated pages for Test & Release, Monitor & Improve, and Monetize with Play already live, we're excited to announce the full completion of this toolkit. The new Grow users overview page is now available, giving you a comprehensive, tailored view to help you acquire new users and expand your reach. Track your key audience growth metrics on the new "Grow users" overview page Boost re-engagement with the You tab Last month, we launched You tab, a brand new, personalized destination on the Play Store. This is where users can discover and re-engage with content from their favorite apps and games with curated rewards, subscriptions, recommendations, and updates all in one place. App developers can take advantage of this personalized destination by integrating with Engage SDK . This integration allows you to help people pick up right where they left off—like resuming a movie or playlist— or get personalized recommendations, all while seamlessly guiding them back into your app. Game developers can use this surface to showcase timely in-game events, content updates, and special offers, making it easy for players to jump right back into the action. Promotional content, YouTube video listings, and Play Points coupons are now open to all game developers for creating a rich presence on the You tab. The availability of these powerful re-engagement tools is part of our broader commitment to game quality through the new Google Play Games Level Up program. Learn more about the program's guidelines here . Showcase in-game events and offers on the new You tab Optimize your monetization strategy and track performance We're launching powerful new ways to configure your one-time products and track the full impact of your Play Points promotions with a new, consolidated reporting page. Simplify catalog management for one-time products Earlier this year, we introduced more flexible ways to configure one-time purchases . You can now offer your in-app products as limited-time rentals, and sign up for our early access program to get started with pre-orders. We've also launched a new taxonomy, building on our existing subscription model, to help you manage your catalog more efficiently. This new model unlocks significant flexibility to help you reach a wider audience and cater to different user preferences by letting you offer the same item in multiple ways. For example, you can sell an item in one country and rent it in another—helping Play better surface relevant offerings to users. Explore these new capabilities today in Play Console . Manage your catalog more efficiently with new ways to configure one-time products Understand the impact and performance of Play Points promotions With Play Points recently opened to all eligible titles, you can now better understand the impact of your promotions. The new Play Points page in Play Console lets you see the total revenue, buyers and acquisitions that all Play Points promotions have generated. This reporting covers both your developer-created offers, as well as new reporting for Google-funded Play Points promotions, which includes direct and post-promotion performance metrics . New reporting for Play Points promotions The features announced today are more than just updates; they are the building blocks of a powerful growth engine for your business. We hope you start exploring these new capabilities today and continue sharing feedback so we can build the tools you need to build a thriving, sustainable business on Google Play.
Posted by Robbie McLachlan - Developer Marketing At Google Play, we’re committed to helping businesses of all sizes reach their full potential. That’s why we’re excited to open submissions for our new Google Play Apps Accelerator . If you’re an early-stage app company ready to scale, this program is designed for you. Selected companies from over 60+ eligible countries will join a 12-week accelerator starting in March 2026. The program combines 1-1 mentorship from Google and industry experts with a curriculum focused on growing your app business on Google Play. Sessions will cover: Build: We'll cover the journey from a prototype to a scalable, high-quality app - focusing on the tools and best practices for longevity. Grow: So you've launched. Now what? Waiting for users to show up isn't the best strategy. We'll dive into what really works for growth. You'll get the playbook on go-to-market strategy, user acquisition, and LiveOps that turns downloads into a user community. Earn: Want to build a smart monetization strategy? We'll focus on revenue models that build value and drive sustainable growth for your business. Lead: You've mastered your product, but what about your people? Your role as a founder is evolving. We’ll give you leadership insights to hire the right people, grow their skills, and build a thriving culture. You’ll also get the chance to meet and connect with other founders from around the world who are looking to take their apps to the next level. All submissions must be completed by January 7, 2026, @ 11:59 PM GMT. Check out our terms and conditions for more information. Apply now to supercharge your growth on Google Play.
Posted by Aurash Mahbod – VP and GM, Games on Google Play We’re evolving Google Play Games into an integrated experience centered on the player journey. Today, players have to jump between different platforms to discover, play, and socialize. Our goal is to connect these journeys to create the best gaming experience for players and grow your business. Games that offer seamless and rewarding experiences achieve higher engagement and growth on Play. That’s why we’re introducing Google Play Games Level Up , a new way we’re leveling up the player experience and unlocking greater success for your business. The Level Up program is open to all games¹, including access to powerful tools and promotional opportunities. Games can stay enrolled in the program and maximize benefits by meeting the user experience guidelines by each program milestone , the first milestone date being July 2026. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits and guidelines of Google Play Games Level Up. Program benefits to accelerate your growth Games that are part of the Level Up program can access a suite of benefits to accelerate business growth. This includes a new space to engage with players, access to content tools in Play Console, and enhanced discovery opportunities through editorial surfaces on the Play Store. Re-engage players on You tab. You tab² is a new personalized destination on the Play Store where players can view content and rewards from games they’ve recently played, all in one dedicated place. It’s designed to help you re-engage and retain players by showcasing your latest events, offers, and updates. Games can feature their content on You tab using engagement tools in Play Console. You can drive player engagement through a rich store presence using promotional content, Play Points coupons, YouTube videos, and achievements , which all show up on your game detail page and You tab. Clash of Clans is re-engaging players through You tab Maximize your game’s reach. To make it easier for players to discover great games, we’re incorporating the user experience guidelines into our editorial criteria. Games that are part of the program will have the opportunity for prominent boosts across the store including featuring opportunities and Play Points boosters and quests. Titles that are part of the program will have more opportunities to be recommended through editorial surfaces across the store including the Games home and Play Points home. Get more opportunities to be featured on editorial surfaces Unlock deeper performance insights. Making the right decisions to grow your game requires a clear picture of your entire business. Next year, we're introducing more advanced reporting in Play Console. You'll be able to connect the dots from player acquisition to long-term engagement and monetization, giving you the holistic insights needed to optimize your growth strategy with confidence. Guidelines built on great user experience Games can stay enrolled in the program and access benefits by meeting the user experience guidelines. These guidelines are based on what players want: a seamless, rewarding experience everywhere they play. To deliver on this, we've established three core user experience guidelines: Player continuity: Today’s players enjoy their games across multiple devices. They want to continue playing without missing a beat. Cloud save makes this possible, Cloud save makes this possible, while Play Games Services automatically syncs their sign-in credentials for a seamless experience. We're making this experience even better with Play Games Sidekick. The new in-game overlay gives players instant access to their rewards, offers, and achievements, driving higher engagement for your game. With AI-driven tips and advice, Sidekick helps players stay immersed in the games they love. Starting early next year, you can enable this experience by using a simple toggle in Play Console with a streamlined testing process. Play Games Sidekick July, 2026 Cloud save November, 2026 Seamless restore November, 2026 Play Games Sidekick keeps players immersed in your game Rewarding player journeys: Players love seeing the time and effort they invest in games be recognized and rewarded. By designing achievements that span the lifetime of the game—celebrating progression to discovering hidden surprises or even acknowledging failed attempts—you can make a player's entire experience feel more engaging and valued. By implementing high quality achievements, you’ll become eligible for Play Points quests that reward players for completing each achievement and increase retention for your game. Achievements July, 2026 DREDGE rewards player progression through achievements Cross device gameplay: Players want the flexibility to enjoy their favorite games on any device. We’ve seen games optimized for multiple device types—from mobile to tablet to PC—drive higher player engagement and spend. To make these games even easier for players to find, we are launching new in-store discovery features later this year to prominently showcase titles with great cross device and input support. You can give your players the flexibility to play how they want by adding keyboard and mouse support, as well as controller support—which also unlocks better gaming with attachable mobile controllers and Android XR. Google Play Games on PC makes it easier to bring your mobile game to a new audience with a streamlined distribution using Play Console. Controller and mouse / keyboard support Recommended Play on PC Recommended User experience guidelines by each program milestone Start exploring Google Play Games Level Up today The Level Up program is rolling out in Play Console starting today. Player expectations and developer needs are always evolving. The Level Up program is designed to evolve with them which is why user experience guidelines and benefits may be updated over time. We’re committed to providing updates early so you can make informed decisions about the program. Google Play Games Level Up is how we’re investing in your success and creating the best experience for players. We believe that by partnering to build amazing experiences, we can build a stronger ecosystem for everyone. ¹ Games in the Casino category, including social casino and real-money wagering titles, may have limited access to certain program benefits. ² You tab is available in countries where Google Play Points is offered. See the Play Points Help Center for details.
Posted by Robbie McLachlan - Developer Marketing In our latest #WeArePlay stories, we meet the founders building apps and games that power entrepreneurs and business owners around the world. From digitizing finances for micro-merchants in Bogotá to modernizing barbershops in New York, they are solving real-world challenges with intuitive apps. Here are a few of our favorites: Lluís and Man Hei’s app Treinta saves microbusiness owners 30 minutes a day by digitizing their sales, inventory, and cash flow. Lluís Cañadell and Man Hei Lou, co-founders of Treinta Bogotá, Colombia After meeting at university, Lluís and Man Hei reunited to launch Treinta , an app inspired by Lluís’ experience with small businesses across Latin America. Named after the Spanish word for '30,' it helps microbusiness owners save at least 30 minutes a day by digitizing tasks like inventory, sales tracking, and cash flow management. With a recent expansion into the U.S. and upcoming AI tools, they are on track to reach their goal of 100,000 premium members by 2026. Ying, Yong, Steve, and Oswald’s app Glints uses AI-powered recommendations to make hiring talent quick and easy. Seah, Yong, Steve, and Oswald, co-founders of Glints Singapore, Singapore High school friends Ying, Yong, Steve, and Oswald bonded over a shared vision to use technology for good, which led them to create Glints . What began as an internship portal in Singapore evolved into a dynamic hiring app after they saw an opportunity to tackle underemployment among young people in Indonesia. The app streamlines the job search with AI-powered recommendations and direct chat features, creating new career opportunities and helping companies find top talent. Their goal is to expand into more cities and become Indonesia's leading career app. Dave and Songe’s app SQUIRE helps barbers manage and grow their business with an all-in-one platform. Dave and Songe, co-founders of SQUIRE New York, USA Former lawyer Songe and finance expert Dave saw an opportunity to modernize the cash-reliant barbershop industry. With no prior experience, they took over a struggling Manhattan barbershop while developing SQUIRE . The app, which initially focused on appointment scheduling and digital payments, has since evolved into a complete management platform with Point of Sale, inventory tracking, and analytics — helping barbers run their businesses more efficiently. Now, they're adding more customization options and plan to expand SQUIRE's capabilities to continue elevating the modern barbershop experience. Discover other inspiring app and game founders featured in #WeArePlay .
Posted by Suzanne Frey – VP, Product, Trust & Growth for Android You shouldn’t have to choose between open and secure. By engineering security into the core part of the OS, Android has proven that you can have both, and we continue taking new steps in that direction. As new threats emerge, we’ve continued to evolve our defenses. Following recent attacks, including those targeting people's financial data on their phones, we've worked to increase developer accountability to prevent abuse. We’ve seen how malicious actors hide behind anonymity to harm users by impersonating developers and using their brand image to create convincing fake apps. The scale of this threat is significant: our recent analysis found over 50 times more malware from internet-sideloaded sources than on apps available through Google Play. To better protect users from repeat bad actors spreading malware and scams, we're adding another layer of security to make installing apps safer for everyone: developer verification . Starting next year, Android will require all apps to be registered by verified developers in order to be installed by users on certified Android devices . This creates crucial accountability, making it much harder for malicious actors to quickly distribute another harmful app after we take the first one down. Think of it like an ID check at the airport, which confirms a traveler's identity but is separate from the security screening of their bags; we will be confirming who the developer is, not reviewing the content of their app or where it came from. This change will start in a few select countries specifically impacted by these forms of fraudulent app scams, often from repeat perpetrators. Since we implemented verification requirements on Google Play in 2023, we have seen firsthand how helpful developer identification is in stopping bad actors from exploiting anonymity to distribute malware, commit financial fraud, and steal sensitive data. Bringing a similar process to Android more broadly will provide a consistent, common sense baseline of developer accountability across the ecosystem . In early discussions about this initiative, we've been encouraged by the supportive initial feedback we've received. In Brazil, the Brazilian Federation of Banks (FEBRABAN) sees it as a “significant advancement in protecting users and encouraging accountability.” This support extends to governments as well, with Indonesia's Ministry of Communications and Digital Affairs praising it for providing a “balanced approach” that protects users while keeping Android open. Similarly, Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society sees it as a “positive and proactive measure” that aligns with their national digital safety policies. And partners like the Developer’s Alliance have called this a “critical step” for ensuring “trust, accountability, and security” across the entire ecosystem. To make this process as streamlined as possible, we are building a new Android Developer Console just for developers who only distribute outside of Google Play, so they can easily complete their verification; get an early look at how it works . A note for student and hobbyist developers: we know your needs are different from commercial developers, so we’re creating a separate type of Android Developer Console account for you. If you distribute apps on Google Play, you’ve likely already met these verification requirements through the existing Play Console process. You can find more information about how these requirements apply to you in our guides . To be clear, developers will have the same freedom to distribute their apps directly to users through sideloading or to use any app store they prefer. We believe this is how an open system should work—by preserving choice while enhancing security for everyone. Android continues to show that with the right design and security principles, open and secure can go hand in hand. For more details on the specific requirements, visit our website . We'll share more information in the coming months. Timeline and how to prepare To help you get ready, we encourage all developers who distribute apps on certified Android devices to sign up for early access. This is the best way to prepare and stay informed. Early participants will also get: An invitation to an exclusive community discussion forum. Priority support for these new requirements. The chance to provide feedback and help us shape the experience. Sign up for early access now ( Update 4/21/2026: Early access is closed and verification is open to all developers .) Here is the timeline to help you plan: October 2025: Early access begins. Invitations will be sent out gradually. March 2026: Verification opens for all developers. September 2026: These requirements go into effect in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. At this point, any app installed on a certified Android device in these regions must be registered by a verified developer. 2027 and beyond: We will continue to roll out these requirements globally.
Posted by Robbie McLachlan – Developer Marketing In our latest #WeArePlay film, which celebrates the people behind apps and games on Google Play, we meet Hugo, the founder of Maliyo Games . He is on a mission to put African stories and talent on the global gaming map by creating vibrant games inspired by local life and culture. Discover how he is building not just games, but an entire ecosystem for game development on the continent. You went from a career in finance to becoming a pioneer in Africa's games industry. What inspired that leap? I’ve always had a passion for economics and business, but after some years in finance, I wanted to move back to Nigeria and help build something new. I noticed a problem on our continent: we were huge consumers of digital content but not creators. Seeing the passion for our local music and film, I knew we could bring that same energy to gaming. My mission became clear: to shift us from being 'net consumers' to 'net creators,' using games as a medium to take our unique stories and culture to the world. Your games are bursting with African culture. Why is it so important to you to tell these specific stories? Because these are our stories to tell! I think of us as storytellers first, and games are our medium. We create games based on shared experiences from our childhoods, we feature things everyone can relate to like our love for property development and redesign in Safari City . When people in Africa play our games, the reaction is pure joy and surprise. They say, “I can’t believe you guys built this!” because they see themselves and their lives reflected. It's not just about enjoyment; it’s about a deeper, emotional connection. Building a game studio where there was no established industry must have been tough. How did you tackle the challenge of finding and nurturing talent on the continent? It was definitely hard. When we started in 2012, the biggest challenge wasn't just finding skills, but finding the right mindset; so we started GameUp Africa , a free, pan-African training program. It was a longer road, for sure, but it has transformed everything. Today, 90% of our team came through that program. We're now a team of about 30 people from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and more. Seeing these young, brilliant creators, some as young as 17, building their careers with us is the most satisfying part of what I do. How has Google Play helped you achieve global reach from your base in Lagos? For us, Google Play was a no-brainer. Africa is primarily an Android market, so it's our primary distribution platform to reach our audience here and in the diaspora. But it's more than just a storefront; it’s the entire infrastructure. We use the full suite of tools: Firebase’s analytics give us incredible insights into player behaviour, Google AdMob helps us monetize, and the testing tools let us experiment with new features. Google Play makes it possible for a studio in Lagos to build, scale, and operate as a truly global company without having to build that foundation ourselves. What is next for Maliyo Games? Now, our sights are set on growth. The next big goal is to get one of our games to one million monthly active users, as we build towards our long-term ambition of reaching an engaged community of 500 million by 2030. Discover other inspiring app and game founders featured in #WeArePlay .
Android Developers Blog··3 min read
Zero-Day
↘2K
💬
Top Discussion
HN
Hacker News
“GPT-5.5's API pricing is reshaping how startups build AI products”
