New Features To Better Understand Player Behavior With Player Analytics

Posted by Lily Sheringham, Developer Marketing at Google Play Google Play games services includes Player Analytics, a free reporting tool available in the Google Play Developer Console, to help you understand how players are progressing, spending, and churning. Now, you can see what Player Analytics looks like with an exemplary implementation of Play games services: try out the new sample game in the Google Play Developer Console, which we produced with help from Auxbrain , developer of Zombie Highway 2 . The sample game uses randomized and anonymized data from a real game and will also let you try the new features we’re announcing today. Note: You need a Google Play Developer account in order to access the sample game. Use predictive analytics to engage players before they might churn To help you better understand your players’ behavior, we’ve extended the Player Stats API in Player Analytics with predictive functionality. The churn prediction method will return data on the probability that the player will churn, i.e., stop playing the game, so you can create content in response to this to entice them to stay in your game. Additionally, the spend prediction method will return the probability that the player will spend, and you could, for example, provide discounted in-app purchases or show ads based on these insights. Create charts in the new funnels report to quickly visualize sequences of events The funnels report enables you to create a funnel chart from any sequence events, such as achievements, spend, and custom events. For example, you could log custom events for each step in a tutorial flow (e.g., tutorial step 1, step 2, step 3), and then use the funnel report to visualize the exit points in your tutorial. Measure and compare the effect of changes and cumulative values by new users with cohort’s report The cohorts report allows you to take any event such as sessions, cumulative spend, and custom events, and compare the cumulative event values by new user cohorts - providing valuable insight into the impact of your decisions on your gaming versi. For example, you can view users that started the day before you made a change and the day after. This allows you to measure and compare the effect of changes made, so if you doubled the price of all your items in your in-game store, you can see if the cumulative sessions started after the change was lower or higher than the users that started before the change. Updated C++, iOS SDKs and Unity plug-in to support Player Stats API We have updated the C++ and iOS SDKs, and the Unity plug-in, all of which now support the Player Stats API, which includes the basic player stats as well as spend and churn predictions. Be sure to check out the sample game and learn more about Play Games Services. You can also get top tips from game developer Auxbrain to help you find success with Google Play game services.
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Marshmallow And User Data

Posted by Joanna Smith, Developer Advocate and Giles Hogben, Google Privacy Team Marshmallow introduced several changes that were designed to help your app look after user data. The goal was to make it easier for developers to do the right thing. So as Android 6.0, Marshmallow, gains traction, we challenge you to do just that. This post highlights the key considerations for user trust when it comes to runtime permissions and hardware identifiers, and points you to new best practices documentation to clarify what to aim for in your own app. Permission Changes With Marshmallow, permissions have moved from install-time to runtime. This is a mandatory change for SDK 23+, meaning it will affect all developers and all applications targeting Android 6.0. Your app will need to be updated anyway, so your challenge is to do so thoughtfully. Runtime permissions mean that your app can now request access to sensitive information in the context that it will be used. This gives you a chance to explain the need for the permission, without scaring users with a long list of requests. Permissions are also now organized into groups, so that users can make an informed decision without needing to understand technical jargon. By allowing your users to make a decision, they may decide not to grant a permission or to revoke a previously-granted permission. So, your app needs to be thoughtful when handling API calls requiring permissions that may have been denied, and about building in graceful failure-handling so that your users can still interact with the rest of your app. Identifier Changes The other aspect of user trust is doing the right thing with user data. With Marshmallow, we are turning off access to some kinds of data in order to direct developers down this path. Most notably, Local WiFi and Bluetooth MAC addresses are no longer available. The getMacAddress() method of a WifiInfo object and the BluetoothAdapter.getDefaultAdapter().getAddress() method will both return 02:00:00:00:00:00 from now on. However, Google Play Services now provides Instance IDs , which identify an application instance running on a device. Instance IDs provide a reliable alternative to non-resettable, device-scoped hardware IDs, as they will not persist across a factory reset and are scoped to an app instance. See the Google Developer's What is Instance ID? help article for more information. What’s Next User trust depends largely on what users see and how they feel. Mishandling permissions and identifiers increases the risk of unwanted/unintended tracking, and can result in users feeling that your app doesn’t actually care about the user. So to help you get it right, we’ve created new documentation that should enable developers to be certain that their app is doing the right thing for their users. Understand how permissions and user data are linked Learn more about the best practices for permissions Discover the best practices for unique identifiers , with clarity based on changes in Marshmallow. So happy developing! May your apps make users happy, and may your reviews reflect that. :)
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Grow Your Games Business On Google Play: Game Parameters Management, Video Recording, Streaming Ads, And More

Posted by Morgan Dollard, Product Manager of Google Play Games With mobile gamers across 190 countries, Google Play Games is made up of a vibrant and diverse gaming community. And these players are more engaged than ever. Over the past year, the number of games reaching over 1 million installs grew by 50 percent. Today, at our annual Developer Day at the Game Developers Conference, we announced new platform and ads tools for developers, of all sizes reach, to reach this global audience and accelerate the growth of their games business. Check out below the full range of features that will help game developers build their apps, grow their user base, and earn more revenue. Making Google Play Games better for players In February, we introduced Gamer IDs so that anyone could create a gaming persona. We also simplified the sign-in process for Google Play Games so players could pick up playing their game more quickly. We’re also working on product enhancements to make Play Games a little more social and fun, which will mean more engaged players who’re playing your game for longer. One example is the launch of Gamer friends (coming soon!), where your players can add and interact with their friends from within the Google Play Games app (without needing a Google+ account). We’re also launching the Indie Corner , a new collection on Google Play, that will highlight amazing games built by indie developers. You can nominate your awesome indie game for inclusion at g.co/indiecornersubmission . We’ll pick the best games to showcase based on the quality of the experience and exemplary use of Google Play game services. Grow your game with powerful new features from Google Play game services In January, we added features to Player Analytics , the free reporting tool of Google Play game services, which helps you understand how players are progressing, spending and churning. Today, we previewed some upcoming new tools that would be available in the coming months, including: Game parameters management: With game parameters management, you will be able to update gameplay and game economy parameters without the need for APK changes or resubmitting your app. You’ll be able to optimize virtual goods and currencies from the Developer Console or the Google Play Developer API. Game parameters management in the Google Play Developer Console Video Recording API: You will be able to easily add video recording to your app and let users share their videos with their friends and on YouTube in a few simple steps. We are also adding live streaming functionality to allow your fans to broadcast their gameplay experiences in real time on YouTube. Predictive Analytics: The Player Stats API now has Predictive Analytics to help you identify which groups of players are likely to spend or churn, and we are adding new predictions for how much a player is likely to spend within 30 days and the probability that a player is a high spender. This allows you to tailor experiences for these players to try to increase their spend or engagement. Learn more about the Player Stats API. “Not showing ads to users that were probable to spend increased number of IAP transactions by 15%.” – Avetis Zakharyan, CEO Underwater Apps New ad formats and targeting to find, keep and monetize high-quality gamers Promoting your game and growing your audience is important, but it’s just as important to reach the right audience for your game, the players who want to open the game again and again. That’s why today we’ve unveiled new features that make it simpler to reach the right audience at scale. Search Trial Run Ads: In the next few weeks, we’ll launch a new way for users to try your game out when they do a search for games on Google through a new ad format, Search Trial Run Ads. After tapping “Try now”, an individual can play your game for up to 10 minutes, and then download the game in full if they choose. These ads will appear to ponsel pintar users on WiFi. Using this format, you can drive qualified users who are likely to stay engaged with your game after install. SGN’s Search Trial Run Ad for Panda Pop Portrait Video Ads: More than 80% of video ad views in mobile apps on the Google Display Network are from devices held vertically, but often these videos are created for landscape viewing. Over the next few weeks, we’re launching Portrait Video Ads for a full-screen, immersive portrait video experience. Developers have seen significant improvement in both click-through and conversion rates, resulting in lower cost per install and more installs. Active User Targeting for Games: In the coming weeks, we’re rolling out a new type of targeting for Android apps that allows you to show ads to users who have spent more than 30 minutes playing games, or who have played a Google Play Games integrated game, in the last 30 days. Earn more revenue in your game with AdMob AdMob helps game developers around the world maximize revenue through in-app advertising. At GDC, we also announced a new way to help you earn more through AdMob Mediation. Rewarded advertising is a popular form of game monetization -- users are given the choice to engage with ads in exchange for an in-app reward. AdMob Mediation will enable you to easily monetize your apps with rewarded video ads from a number of ad providers. Supported networks and platforms include AdColony, AppLovin, Chartboost, Fyber, Upsight and Vungle, with more being added all the time. You can learn more about this, and all our ads announcements on the Inside AdWords blog. This is just the start of what we’ve got planned for 2016. We hope you can make use of these tools to improve your game, engage your audience, and grow your business and revenue.
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Introducing The Second Class Of Launchpad Accelerator

Originally posted on Google Developers blog Roy Glasberg, Global Lead, Launchpad Program & Accelerator This week Launchpad Accelerator announces its second class, which includes 24 promising startups from around the world. While the number of accelerators is at an all-time high , we take a different approach with Launchpad Accelerator, a program that exclusively works with late-stage tech startups in emerging markets -- Brazil, Indonesia, India and Mexico. See what it’s like to participate in the Accelerator. “We provide comprehensive mentorship that delivers results,” says Jacob Greenshpan , one of Launchpad’s lead mentors. “We start by running a ‘patient diagnostic’ to determine each startup’s critical challenges, and then deploy precise mentorship, actionable solutions, and Google resources that enables the app to scale.” Class 2 kicks off June 13. The startups will descend on Google HQ for an intensive 2 week bootcamp. Under the tutelage of Google product teams and mentors from the global Launchpad network, they will receive intensive, targeted mentoring, equity-free funding, and more benefits during the 6-month program. Here’s the full list of startups (by country): Brazil BankFacil Emprego Ligado AppProva GetNinjas Edools Love Mondays Indonesia HijUp Talenta Jarvis Store Ruangguru IDNtimes Codapay India Taskbob Programming Hub ShareChat RedCarpet PlaySimple Games MagicPin Mexico Aliada SaferTaxi Conekta Konfio Kichink Miroculus Google’s “Scalerator” Drives Results for Alumni What advice do Class 1 alumni give to the new intake? “Come to the accelerator with an open mind. You will be shocked to find how many things are going wrong in your app. Thankfully the mentors will help you implement better solutions,” says Vinicius Heimbeck, Founder of Brazilian mobile game developer UpBeat Games. UpBeat Games had more than 1,000% increase in daily app installations in Asia during the period of a feature, as well as a 200% overall increase in active users after following a long list of improvements Accelerator mentors suggested. “We made optimizations that led us to be featured in Google Play, which changed everything for us.” See Upbeat Games at the Accelerator in this video . “Believe you can build a world class product. The mentors will push you to bet on yourself,” says Amarendra Sahu, Nestaway Co-founder and Class 1 alumni. NestAway just closed a $30M Series C , one of the largest investment rounds in India this year. “Your biggest enemy is not failure; it is the temptation to be ordinary. But the mentors will push you to build an extraordinary product and scale an extraordinary startup," says eFishery Co-founder and CEO Gibran Chuzaefah Amsi El Farizy, who was announced as one of the top 27 leaders in Indonesia’s startup ecosystem, after participating in the Accelerator acara.
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And The Winners Of The Google Play Awards Are…

Posted by Purnima Kochikar, Director, Apps and Games Business Development, Google Play During a special ceremony last tonight at Google I/O, we honored ten apps and games for their outstanding achievements as part of the inaugural Google Play Awards. As we shared onstage, when you look at how Google Play has evolved over the years, it’s pretty amazing. We’re now reaching over 1 billion users every month and there’s literally something for everyone. From real-time multiplayer to beautiful Indie games, industry changing startups to innovative uses of mobile technology, developers like you continue to push the boundaries of what apps can do. Congrats to the following developers in each category!
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Grow Your Business On Google Play With Help From The New Playbook For Developers App

Posted by Dom Elliott, the Google Play team Today, the href="http://g.co/play/playbook-androiddevelopers-blog-launch">Playbook for Developers mobile app is now generally available for Android devices. The app helps you stay up-to-date with the features and best practices to grow your business on Google Play. Thanks to all our beta testers over the last six weeks whose feedback helped us tweak and refine the app in preparation for launch. Here’s how you read and watch content in the Playbook for Developers app: Choose topics relating to your business interests to personalize My Playbook with curated articles and videos from Google and experts across the web. Explore the in-depth guide to Google’s developer products, with articles grouped by what you’re trying to do: develop, launch, engage, grow, and earn. Take actions on items – complete, share, save, or dismiss them – and read your Saved articles later, including offline if they’re written in the app. A data connection will be needed to read articles and videos from across the web. The app supports Android 5.0 and above. If you're on an older device, check out our ebook, The Secrets to App Success on Google Play . We will be adding and updating content in the app to help you stay up-to-date and grow your business. href="http://g.co/play/playbook-androiddevelopers-blog-launch">Get the Playbook for Developers app today and then href="mailto:playbookfeedback@google.com">give us your feedback . The app is also available in the following languages: href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&hl=id&utm_source=androiddevelopers&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=id">Bahasa Indonesia , href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&hl=de&&utm_source=androiddevelopers&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=de">Deutsch , href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&hl=es-419&&utm_source=androiddevelopers&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=es-419">español (Latinoamérica) , href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&hl=fr&&utm_source=androiddevelopers&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=fr">le français , href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&hl=pt-BR&&utm_source=androiddevelopers&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=pr-BR">português do Brasil , href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&hl=vi&&utm_source=androiddevelopers&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=vi">tiếng Việt , href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&hl=ru&&utm_source=androiddevelopers&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=ru">русский язы́к , href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&hl=ko&&utm_source=androiddevelopers&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=ko">한국어 , href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&hl=zh-CN&&utm_source=androiddevelopers&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=zh-CN">中文 (简体) , href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&hl=zh-TW&&utm_source=androiddevelopers&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=zh-TW">中文 (繁體) , and href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&hl=ja&&utm_source=androiddevelopers&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=ja">日本語 . This is the second app we’ve released for Google Play developers. Get the href="http://g.co/play/consoleapp">Google Play Developer Console app to review your app's performance statistics and financial data, get notified about your app's status and publishing changes, and read and reply to user reviews on the go.
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Changes To Trusted Certificate Authorities In Android Nougat

Posted by Chad Brubaker, Android Security team In Android Nougat, we’ve changed how Android handles trusted certificate authorities (CAs) to provide safer defaults for secure app traffic. Most apps and users should not be affected by these changes or need to take any action. The changes include: Safe and easy APIs to trust custom CAs. Apps that target API Level 24 and above no longer trust user or admin-added CAs for secure connections, by default. All devices running Android Nougat offer the same standardized set of system CAs—no device-specific customizations. For more details on these changes and what to do if you’re affected by them, read on. Safe and easy APIs Apps have always been able customize which certificate authorities they trust. However, we saw apps making mistakes due to the complexities of the Java TLS APIs. To address this we href="https://developer.android.com/preview/features/security-config.html">improved the APIs for customizing trust. User-added CAs Protection of all application data is a key goal of the Android application sandbox. Android Nougat changes how applications interact with user- and admin-supplied CAs. By default, apps that target API level 24 will—by design—not honor such CAs unless the app explicitly opts in. This safe-by-default setting reduces application attack surface and encourages consistent handling of network and file-based application data. Customizing trusted CAs Customizing the CAs your app trusts on Android Nougat is easy using the Network Security Config. Trust can be specified across the whole app or only for connections to certain domains, as needed. Below are some examples for trusting a custom or user-added CA, in addition to the system CAs. For more examples and details, see href="https://developer.android.com/preview/features/security-config.html">the full documentation . Trusting custom CAs for debugging To allow your app to trust custom CAs only for local debugging, include something like this in your Network Security Config. The CAs will only be trusted while your app is marked as debuggable. Trusting custom CAs for a domain To allow your app to trust custom CAs for a specific domain, include something like this in your Network Security Config. internal.example.com for connections to internal.example.com --> Trusting user-added CAs for some domains To allow your app to trust user-added CAs for multiple domains, include something like this in your Network Security Config. userCaDomain.com otherUserCaDomain.com Trusting user-added CAs for all domains except some To allow your app to trust user-added CAs for all domains, except for those specified, include something like this in your Network Security Config. sensitive.example.com with the real server and not any user or admin configured MiTMs --> Trusting user-added CAs for all secure connections To allow your app to trust user-added CAs for all secure connections, add this in your Network Security Config. Standardized set of system-trusted CAs To provide a more consistent and more secure experience across the Android ecosystem, beginning with Android Nougat, compatible devices trust only the standardized system CAs maintained in href="https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/ca-certificates/">AOSP . Previously, the set of preinstalled CAs bundled with the system could vary from device to device. This could lead to compatibility issues when some devices did not include CAs that apps needed for connections as well as potential security issues if CAs that did not meet our security requirements were included on some devices. What if I have a CA I believe should be included on Android? First, be sure that your CA needs to be included in the system. The preinstalled CAs are only for CAs that meet our security requirements because they affect the secure connections of most apps on the device. If you need to add a CA for connecting to hosts that use that CA, you should instead customize your apps and services that connect to those hosts. For more information, see the Customizing trusted CAs section above. If you operate a CA that you believe should be included in Android, first complete the Mozilla CA Inclusion Process and then file a href="https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/entry">feature request against Android to have the CA added to the standardized set of system CAs.
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Improvements For Smaller App Downloads On Google Play

Posted by Anthony Morris, SWE Google Play Google Play continues to grow rapidly, as Android users installed over 65 billion apps in the last year from the Google Play Store. We’re also seeing developers move to update their apps more frequently to push great new content, patch security vulnerabilities, and iterate quickly on user feedback. However, many users are sensitive to the amount of data they use, especially if they are not on Wi-Fi. Google Play is investing in improvements to reduce the data that needs to be transferred for app installs and updates, while making data cost more transparent to users. Read on to understand the updates and learn some tips for ways to optimize the size of your APK. New Delta algorithm to reduce the size of app updates For approximately 98% of app updates from the Play Store, only changes (deltas) to APK files are downloaded and merged with the existing files, reducing the size of updates. Google Play has used delta algorithms since 2012, and we recently rolled out an additional delta algorithm, href="http://www.daemonology.net/bsdiff/">bsdiff href="http://www.daemonology.net/bsdiff/">(created by Colin Percival id="fnref1"> 1 href="http://www.daemonology.net/bsdiff/">) , that our experimentation shows can reduce delta size by up to 50% or more compared to the previous algorithm for some APKs. Bsdiff is specifically targeted to produce more efficient deltas of native libraries by taking advantage of the specific ways in which compiled native code changes between versions. To be most effective, native libraries should be stored uncompressed (compression interferes with delta algorithms). An example from Chrome: Patch Description Previous patch size Bsdiff Size M46 to M47 major update 22.8 MB 12.9 MB M47 minor update 15.3 MB 3.6 MB Apps that don’t have uncompressed native libraries can see a 5% decrease in size on average, compared to the previous delta algorithm. Applying the delta algorithm to APK Expansion Files to further reduce update size APK Expansion Files allow you to include additional large files up to 2GB in size (e.g. high resolution graphics or media files) with your app, which is especially popular with games. We have recently expanded our delta and compression algorithms to apply to these APK Expansion Files in addition to APKs, reducing the download size of initial installs by 12%, and updates by 65% on average. APK Expansion file patches use the href="http://xdelta.org/">xdelta algorithm . Clearer size information in the Play Store Alongside the improvements to reduce download size, we also made information displayed about data used and download sizes in the Play Store clearer. You can now see actual download sizes, not the APK file size, in the Play Store. If you already have an app, you will only see the update size. These changes are rolling out now. Colin Percival, Naive differences of executable code, http://www.daemonology.net/bsdiff/, 2003.  ↩ Example 1: Showing new “Download size” of APK Example 2: Showing new “Update size” of APK Tips to reduce your download sizes 1. Optimize for the right size measurements: Users care about download size (i.e. how many bytes are transferred when installing/updating an app), and they care about disk size (i.e. how much space the app takes up on disk). It’s important to note that neither of these are the same as the original APK file size nor necessarily correlated. Chrome example: Compressed Native Library Uncompressed Native Library APK Size 39MB 52MB (+25%) Download size (install) 29MB 29MB (no change) Download size (update) 29MB 21MB (-29%) Disk size 71MB 52MB (-26%) Chrome found that initial download size remained the same by not compressing the native library in their APK, while the APK size increased, because Google Play already performs compression for downloads. They also found that the update size decreased, as deltas are more effective with uncompressed files, and disk size decreased as you no longer need an compressed copy of the native library. However, please note, native libraries should only be uncompressed when the minimum SDK version for an APK is 23 (Marshmallow) or later. 2. Reduce your APK size: Remove unnecessary data from the APK like unused resources and code. 3. Optimize parts of your APK to make them smaller: Using more efficient file formats, for example by using WebP instead of JPEG, or by using Proguard to remove unused code. href="https://medium.com/google-developers/smallerapk-part-1-anatomy-of-an-apk-da83c25e7003#.jgy8wuni9">Read more about reducing APK sizes and watch the I/O 2016 session href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xctGIB81D2w">‘Putting Your App on a Diet’ to learn from Wojtek Kaliciński, about how to reduce the size of your APK .
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