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Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Introducing the ExifInterface Support Library

With the release of the href="https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/support-library/revisions.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#rev25-1-0">25.1.0 Support Library, there's a new entry in the family: the ExifInterface Support Library. With significant improvements introduced in Android 7.1 to the framework's href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">ExifInterface, it only made sense to make those available to all API 9+ devices via the Support Library's ExifInterface.

The basics are still the same: the ability to read and write href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Exif tags embedded within image files: now with 140 different attributes (almost 100 of them new to Android 7.1/this Support Library!) including information about the camera itself, the camera settings, orientation, and GPS coordinates.

Camera Apps: Writing Exif Attributes

For Camera apps, the writing is probably the most important - writing attributes is still limited to JPEG image files. Now, normally you wouldn't need to use this during the actual camera capturing itself - you'd instead be calling the Camera2 API href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/camera2/CaptureRequest.Builder.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#set(android.hardware.camera2.CaptureRequest.Key%3CT%3D,%20T)">CaptureRequest.Builder.set() with href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/camera2/CaptureRequest.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#JPEG_ORIENTATION">JPEG_ORIENTATION, href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/camera2/CaptureRequest.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#JPEG_GPS_LOCATION">JPEG_GPS_LOCATION or the equivalents in the Camera1 href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Camera.Parameters.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Camera.Parameters. However, using ExifInterface allows you to make changes to the file after the fact (say, removing the location information on the user's request).

Reading Exif Attributes

For the rest of us though, reading those attributes is going to be our bread-and-butter; this is where we see the biggest improvements.

Firstly, you can read Exif data from JPEG and raw images (specifically, DNG, CR2, NEF, NRW, ARW, RW2, ORF, PEF, SRW and RAF files). Under the hood, this was a major restructuring, removing all native dependencies and building an extensive test suite to ensure that everything actually works.

For apps that receive images from other apps with a content:// URI (such as those sent by apps that href="https://developer.android.com/about/versions/nougat/android-7.0-changes.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#sharing-files">target API 24 or higher), ExifInterface now works directly off of an InputStream; this allows you to easily extract Exif information directly out of content:// URIs you receive without having to create a temporary file. class="prettyprint">Uri uri; // the URI you've received from the other app
InputStream in;
try {
in = getContentResolver().openInputStream(uri);
ExifInterface exifInterface = new ExifInterface(in);
// Now you can extract any Exif tag you want
// Assuming the image is a JPEG or supported raw format
} catch (IOException e) {
// Handle any errors
} finally {
if (in != null) {
try {
in.close();
} catch (IOException ignored) {}
}
}

Note: ExifInterface will not work with remote InputStreams, such as those returned from a href="https://developer.android.com/reference/java/net/HttpURLConnection.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">HttpURLConnection. It is strongly recommended to only use them with content:// or file:// URIs.

For most attributes, you'd simply use the href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getAttributeInt(java.lang.String,%20int)">getAttributeInt(), href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getAttributeDouble(java.lang.String,%20double)">getAttributeDouble(), or href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getAttribute(java.lang.String)">getAttribute() (for Strings) methods as appropriate.

One of the most important attributes when it comes to displaying images is the image orientation, stored in the aptly-named href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#TAG_ORIENTATION">TAG_ORIENTATION, which returns one of the ORIENTATION_ constants. To convert this to a rotation angle, you can post-process the value. class="prettyprint">int rotation = 0;
int orientation = exifInterface.getAttributeInt(
ExifInterface.TAG_ORIENTATION,
ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_NORMAL);
switch (orientation) {
case ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_ROTATE_90:
rotation = 90;
break;
case ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_ROTATE_180:
rotation = 180;
break;
case ExifInterface.ORIENTATION_ROTATE_270:
rotation = 270;
break;
}

There are some helper methods to extract values from specific Exif tags. For location data, the href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getLatLong(float[])">getLatLong() method gives you the latitude and longitude as floats and href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getAltitude(double)">getAltitude() will give you the altitude in meters. Some images also embed a small thumbnail. You can check for its existence with href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#hasThumbnail()">hasThumbnail() and then extract the byte[] representation of the thumbnail with href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/media/ExifInterface.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getThumbnail()">getThumbnail() - perfect to pass to href="https://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/BitmapFactory.html?utm_campaign=android_launch_exifsupportlibrary_122116&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#decodeByteArray(byte[],%20int,%20int)">BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray().

Working with Exif: Everything is optional

One thing that is important to understand with Exif data is that there are no required tags: each and every tag is optional - some services even specifically strip Exif data. Therefore throughout your code, you should always handle cases where there is no Exif data, either due to no data for a specific attribute or an image format that doesn't support Exif data at all (say, the ubiquitous PNGs or WebP images).

Add the ExifInterface Support Library to your project with the following dependency:

class="prettyprint">compile "com.android.support:exifinterface:25.1.0"

But when an Exif attribute is exactly what you need to prevent a mis-rotated image in your app, the ExifInterface Support Library is just what you need to #BuildBetterApps

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Get the guide to finding success in new markets on Google Play

Posted by Lily Sheringham, Developer Marketing at Google Play


With just a few clicks, you can publish an app to Google Play and access a
global audience of more than 1 billion 30 days active users. Finding success in
global markets means considering how each market differs, planning for high
quality localization, and tailoring your activity to the local audience. The new
Going
Global Playbook
provides best practices and tips, with advice from
developers who've successfully gone global.



This guide includes advice to help you plan your approach to going global,
prepare your app for new markets, take your app to market, and also include data
and insights for key countries and other useful resources.



This ebook joins others that we've recently published including href="https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Google_Inc_The_Building_for_Billions_Playbook_for?id=cJEjDAAAQBAJ">The
Building for Billions Playbook and href="https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Google_Inc_The_News_Publisher_Playbook_for_Android?id=O7T3CwAAQBAJ">The
News Publisher Playbook. All of our ebooks are promoted in the href="http://g.co/play/playbookapp">Playbook for Developers app, which is
where you can stay up to date with all the news and best practices you need to
find success on Google Play.






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Monday, December 19, 2016

Best practices to improve app engagement


Posted by Niko Schröer, Business Development, Google Play



Driving installs is important to growing a user base, but it's not much use if
your app sits on users' devices and is rarely opened. In a competitive app
landscape, it's increasingly important to engage and retain users over the long
term to build a successful business. Users who are using your app more will have
a higher lifetime value and be more likely to share your app. Watch my Playtime
session below to hear about the tools and features other developers are using to
increase app engagement. You can also read the summary of my main tips below.




1. Build a high quality app to engage Android users



Building a high quality app is the foundation of a great user experience on
Android. The better your app's user experience is, the more engaged your users
will be. Optimizing for href="https://developer.android.com/design/material/index.html?utm_campaign=android_discussion_bestpractices_121916&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">material
design, for example, can significantly improve user engagement as well as
building for Android
Wear
, Auto or href="https://developer.android.com/training/tv/index.html?utm_campaign=android_discussion_bestpractices_121916&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">TV where it
makes sense based on your value proposition.



To achieve high quality, we recommend you to check out the latest Android
features, tips, and best practices in our href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.secrets&utm_source=dac&utm_medium=page&utm_campaign=evergreen&utm_source=global_co&utm_medium=prtnr&utm_content=Mar2515&utm_campaign=PartBadge&pcampaignid=MKT-Other-global-all-co-prtnr-py-PartBadge-Mar2515-1&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">Playbook
for Developers.



The developer of the golf app, href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hole19golf.hole19.beta">Hole19,
tailored their app's user experience thoughtfully for Android Wear and, as a
result, saw a 40% increase in user engagement compared to non-Wear users. href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yBQjkrhACc">Watch a video about Hole19's
success.



2. Make your users feel at home



Personalising your app experience to make users feel at home is a good way to
start a long lasting relationship. Onboarding new users is a crucial step in
this process. Onboarding should be fast and seamless and ask for minimal user
input - after all users want to start using your app as quickly as possible.
Furthermore, the onboarding should be a core part of the overall product
experience. Use images and wording that's true to your brand and only ask for
user input when it's actually needed, to reduce friction and avoid losing users.



href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freeletics.gym">Freeletics,
a fitness app, created an engaging user onboarding flow in which they tailored
imagery and text to male and female users respectively. They also moved the
registration process to a later stage in the funnel to reduce friction. The
improved onboarding flow increased user activity by 58% within the first 7 days.
They also implemented Google Smart
Lock
to seamlessly sign-in returning users.



3. Optimize feature releases as a way to increase user
engagement



Introducing new features is essential to staying ahead of competition and
relevant to your users to ensure they keep coming back to your app. To make new
feature launches successful drivers for user engagement, follow these simple
steps:


  • Define a clear objective for each release to measure your impact, e.g.
    increase number of users who edit a photo by at least 10%.
  • href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213">Use
    beta testing to gather user feedback and iterate a feature before it's
    rolled out to all of your users.
  • href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/7002270">Enable
    the pre-launch report in the Play developer console to spot potential flaws
    and ensure technical stability in your alpha and beta apps.
  • Guide users to each new feature as if it is a light onboarding experience.
    Visually highlight what's new and provide a short explanation why users should
    care.
  • Measure performance with href="https://firebase.google.com/docs/analytics/?utm_campaign=culture_education_general_en_12-19-16&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">analytics to see if the
    new feature drives engagement (that you've defined as your objective).


4. Use notifications wisely



Push notifications are a popular engagement tool and rightfully so. However,
there is a fine line between driving engagement and annoying users (who might
then uninstall your app). Follow these guidelines to ensure your notifications
are on the right side of the line:


  • Be relevant and only send messages that matter to the user in context. Be
    creative and true to your brand, speak your users language and use an authentic
    tone.
  • Make notifications actionable for your users and don't forget to deep link
    to content where applicable to save your users time.
  • Remember that not all your users are equal so personalize your message to
    different user cohorts with href="https://firebase.google.com/docs/notifications/?utm_campaign=culture_education_general_en_12-19-16&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Firebase
    Notifications.
  • Consider timeliness of your messages to get users the right notification at
    the right time and with the right frequency. For example, it might be better to
    send a notification about something interesting to read at a time when the user
    normally gets out their phone – like during their commute – instead of the
    middle of the day, when they might be busy and dismiss a new notification.
  • Finally, give users control over what notifications they receive so that
    they can opt-in and opt-out of the notifications they like and don't like
    respectively. If users get annoyed about certain types of notifications and
    don't have a way to disable them, they might uninstall your app.


The Norwegian news app href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=no.cita&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">Aftenposten
implemented a new onboarding flow that clarified which notifications were
available, allowing readers to manage their preferences. This reduced uninstalls
by 9.2.% over 60 days and led to a 28% decrease in the number of users muting
notifications completely. href="https://developer.android.com/distribute/stories/apps/aftenposten.html?utm_campaign=android_discussion_bestpractices_121916&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Read
more about Aftenposten's success.



5. Reward your most engaged users



Last but not least, you should find ways to reward your most loyal users to
retain them over time and to make it desirable to less engaged users to engage
more. These rewards can come in many shapes and forms. Start by keeping it
simple and make sure the reward adds real value to the user and fits in your
app's ecosystem. You can do this by:


  • Giving sneak peeks of new features by inviting them to a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213?hl=en">beta
    group.
  • Decorating user accounts with badges based on their behaviour.
  • Offer app exclusive discounts or href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6321495">promo
    codes that can only be redeemed in your app.


Generally, the more you can personalize the reward the better it will work.



Find success with ongoing experimentation



A great Android app gives developers a unique opportunity to create a lasting
relationship with users and build a sustainable business with happy customers.
Therefore optimising apps to engage and retain your users by following these 5
tips should be front and centre of your development goals and company strategy.
Find more tips and best practices by watching the sessions at href="http://android-developers.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/watch-sessions-from-the-playtime-2016-events-to-learn-how-to-succeed-on-android-and-google-play.html">this
year's Playtime events.




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Friday, December 16, 2016

Games authentication adopting Google Sign-In API


Posted by Clayton Wilkinson, Developer Platform Engineer



Some changes are coming to Play Game Services in early 2017:


Changes to Google API Client building



In November, we announced an href="https://developers.googleblog.com/2016/11/moving-to-google-sign-in-for-a-better-user-experience-and-higher-conversion-rates.html">update
to Google Sign-In API. Play Game Services is being updated to use Google
Sign-In API for authentication. The advantages are:


  • Games and Sign-In in same client connection.
  • Single API for getting Auth code to send to backend servers.


This change unifies the Google Sign-in and the Games API Sign-in, so there are
updates to how to build the Google API Client:



class="prettyprint">// Defaults to Games Lite scope, no server component
GoogleSignInOptions gso = new
GoogleSignInOptions.Builder(GoogleSignInOptions.DEFAULT_GAMES_SIGN_IN).build();

// OR for apps with a server component
GoogleSignInOptions gso = new
GoogleSignInOptions.Builder(GoogleSignInOptions.DEFAULT_GAMES_SIGN_IN)
.requestServerAuthCode(SERVER_CLIENT_ID)
.build();

// OR for developers who need real user Identity
GoogleSignInOptions gso = new
GoogleSignInOptions.Builder(GoogleSignInOptions.DEFAULT_GAMES_SIGN_IN)
.requestEmail()
.build();

// Build the api client.
mApiClient = new GoogleApiClient.Builder(this)
.addApi(Games.API)
.addApi(Auth.GOOGLE_SIGN_IN_API, gso)
.addConnectionCallbacks(this)
.build();
}

@Override
public void onConnected(Bundle connectionHint) {
if (mApiClient.hasConnectedApi(Games.API)) {
Auth.GoogleSignInApi.silentSignIn(mApiClient).setResultCallback(
new ResultCallback() {
@Override
public void onResult(GoogleSignInResult googleSignInResult) {
// In this case, we are sure the result is a success.
GoogleSignInAccount acct =
googleSignInResult.getGoogleSignInAccount());

// For Games with a server, send the auth code to your server.
String serverAuthCode = signInAccount.getServerAuthCode();

// Use the API client as normal.
Player player = Games.API.getCurrentPlayer(mApiClient);
}
}
);
} else {
onSignedOut();
}
}

Account creation within iOS is no longer supported



  • Currently, there is no support for new players to create a Play Games
    account on iOS. Additionally, the Google+ integration has been removed from
    iOS. As a result "social" APIs will return result codes indicating success, but
    return empty lists. This includes the "standard" UIs for leaderboards and
    multiplayer invitations.

Google+ is no longer integrated



  • href="http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2016/01/play-games-permissions-are-changing-in.html">Announced
    last year, Games is decoupled from Google+ during this transition. As a
    result the public APIs for getting connected players via circles stopped
    working, but the standard UIs for multiplayer invitations and social
    leaderboards continued to work. Starting from February 2017, the standard UIs
    will also not display the Social graph results as Google+ data becomes
    inaccessible. This will affect multiplayer games, social leaderboards, and
    gifts API on Android. The effect will be that these APIs will return
    successfully, but with an empty list of players.


List of APIs that are deprecated by removing Google+ integration (and their C++
equivalents):


  1. href="https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/games/Players.html?utm_campaign=product area_discussion_games_121616&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getPlayerSearchIntent(com.google.android.gms.common.api.GoogleApiClient)">Games.Players.getPlayerSearchIntent()
  2. href="https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/games/Players.html?utm_campaign=product area_discussion_games_121616&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#loadConnectedPlayers(com.google.android.gms.common.api.GoogleApiClient,%20boolean)">Games.Players.loadConnectedPlayers()
  3. href="https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/games/Players.html?utm_campaign=product area_discussion_games_121616&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#loadInvitablePlayers(com.google.android.gms.common.api.GoogleApiClient,%20int,%20boolean)">Games.Players.loadInvitablePlayers()
  4. The value href="https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/games/leaderboard/LeaderboardVariant.html?utm_campaign=product area_discussion_games_121616&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#COLLECTION_SOCIAL">LeaderboardVariant.COLLECTION_SOCIAL
  5. href="https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/games/multiplayer/Invitations.html?utm_campaign=product area_discussion_games_121616&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#loadInvitations(com.google.android.gms.common.api.GoogleApiClient,%20int)">Invitations.loadInvitations()
  6. href="https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/games/multiplayer/realtime/RealTimeMultiplayer.html?utm_campaign=product area_discussion_games_121616&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getSelectOpponentsIntent(com.google.android.gms.common.api.GoogleApiClient,%20int,%20int,%20boolean)">RealtimeMultiplayer.getSelectOpponentsIntent()
  7. href="https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/games/multiplayer/turnbased/TurnBasedMultiplayer.html?utm_campaign=product area_discussion_games_121616&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog#getSelectOpponentsIntent(com.google.android.gms.common.api.GoogleApiClient,%20int,%20int,%20boolean)">TurnBasedMultiplayer.getSelectOpponentsIntent()
  8. All methods in the href="https://developers.google.com/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/games/request/GameRequest?utm_campaign=product area_discussion_games_121616&utm_source=anddev&utm_medium=blog">Requests
    package.


We realize this is a large change, but moving forward Play Game Services are
much better aligned with the rest of the Mobile platform from Google and will
lead to better developer experience for Android game developers.

Four tips for startup success from a Silicon Valley VC

Posted by Kacey Fahey, Marketing Programs Manager, Google Play




Working at Google Play, we’re on the front line watching developers build, polish, and launch their dreams for millions of users to experience. While it’s exciting to be a part of so much creativity, we’re often asked how small startups can stand out in such a competitive field. We recently had Josh Elman & Sarah Tavel of Greylock Partners speak at our events, sharing their experiences working in Product Marketing and Engineering at major tech companies including Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Below are four tips to hit the ground running and create a business built for success.




Set goals, both large and small




Every startup has an ultimate goal, but don’t forget to create micro-goals. Breaking your larger goal down into smaller milestones creates checkpoints to review progress and ensure momentum is heading in the right direction. This also allows for flexibility if teams need to course correct along the way, not to mention micro-accomplishments to celebrate!




Create stickiness




The first level in Sarah’s Hierarchy of Engagement is to identify the core action for users to perform in your app. Once you have engagement with this core action, level 2 is driving retention, getting users to come back and perform the core action more and more. The ultimate goal is to hook users with your app creating accruing benefits, whereby deeper and more frequent engagement creates habits and product dependencies.











“As companies move up the hierarchy, their products become better, harder to leave, and ultimately create virtuous loops that make the product self-perpetuating,”
– Sarah Tavel, Partner at Greylock





Example: For those looking to improve on organizational skills, Evernote can be a lifesaver. The more lists users create, the more they rely on the product. Evernote becomes such an ingrained habit that it naturally transcends between personal and professional worlds.




Drive virality




When launching a new app, look for ways to achieve virality. Find hooks to make users fall in love with your app and strive to make it part of their regular habits. But watch out, not all types of virality are treated equally.




“Whenever you’re thinking about engineering virality, you need to be sure that you’re reaching the right people, getting them interested for reasons that align with the intrinsic value of your product, and leading them to the right actions,”
– Josh Elman, Partner at Greylock

Example: Whether you’re lucky enough to convert happy users into product evangelists or catch fire through social media, outbreak virality has driven tremendous success for apps like Pokémon GO and Prisma.




Measure cohorts




While monitoring traditional mobile metrics such as installs and DAUs provide a high level overview of app performance, cohort analysis is key to understanding user behavior and optimizing for growth. When rolling out changes in your app, make sure to track cohorts for an extended duration. Initial results may tell one story at D7, but hold tight, as things could turn a corner by D15 or even later. Give users time to adapt and get comfortable with the changes before making any final product decisions.




Read more tips on how to find success for your app or game start up in the Playbook for Developers app.






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Thursday, December 15, 2016

Get a glimpse of Wear 2.0’s upcoming standalone apps

Kacey Fahey, Marketing Programs Manager, Google Play




The upcoming Android Wear 2.0 experience will introduce standalone apps, expanding your potential reach to both Android and iOS audiences with Wear devices. Users will be able to search, install, and use apps without ever leaving their device. See how other developers are enhancing their user experience with standalone apps for messaging, travel & local, and health & fitness.




Glide



Having a watch app further simplifies video messaging with href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glidetalk.glideapp&hl=en_GB">Glide.
Using the Wear href="https://developer.android.com/wear/preview/features/complications.html">Complications
API, Glide is now able to live broadcast directly from the watch face. By
tapping contact shortcuts from the watch face, you can now launch directly into
a conversation. This experience brings speed and intimacy to the world of
messaging, making wrist-based communication more accessible and effortless.



Foursquare



Travelers around the world use href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=7953007503920441591&hl=en_GB">Foursquare's
Android Wear app to discover hidden gems and be in the know about the best
places to eat, drink and explore. With their upcoming 2.0 app, the team has a
clean new canvas for rich notifications giving users an immersive experience
with Foursquare content.



"The standalone nature of the Android Wear 2.0 app will offer a big boost in
search performance and app responsiveness so you spend less time staring at the
screen and more time exploring the world around you,"
said Kyle Fowler,
Software Engineer at Foursquare.



Lifesum




href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sillens.shapeupclub&hl=en_GB">Lifesum
helps users make better food choices, improve their exercise, and reach health
goals. The upcoming 2.0 experience complements the existing Lifesum mobile app
and as a standalone app, it will allow users to more easily track water and
meals throughout the day.



"It's all about increasing access and being there for the user in a quick
and simple way. We believe a simplified way of tracking meals and water will
make it easier for our users on their journey of becoming healthier and
happier,"
said Joakim Hammer, Android Developer at Lifesum





Check out g.co/wearpreview for the latest builds and documentation about the recently released Android Wear Developer Preview 4.




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Tips to be better found and discovered on Google Play

Posted by Andrew Ahn, Product Manager, Google Play


We're constantly working on ways to make Google Play a great place for users to
discover apps and games they'll love. We know this is crucial to most developers
ongoing success. There are steps you can take to ensure your app is primed for
success – that's why we're sharing a reminder of some of our top tips for
getting your app discovered on Google Play.



Build for quality



First, build for quality. Android users expect high-quality apps. App quality
directly influences the long-term success of your app - in terms of installs,
user rating and reviews, engagement, and user retention. These are some of the
factors that go into our search and discovery systems that help discern what
apps to recommend and surface across our Google Play experiences. When building
your app, check against the href="https://developer.android.com/distribute/essentials/quality/core.html">quality
criteria, and use what you need from the material design guidelines to make
sure you are delivering a highly usable experience. Also, be sure to test your
app for functional quality. Opt-in to the href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/7002270?hl=en">pre-launch
report for your alpha and beta apps in the Google Play Developer Console and
you'll receive a report for each APK showing how it performs on real devices. This will help you identify crashes and other issues before you release your app.




Example: Designing for high usability through href="https://material.google.com/">Google Material Design.




Request only the permissions you need



Second, be considerate on which permission settings to enable for your app. We
see that there are some apps that ask for very sensitive permissions, even when
the app doesn't use them. (For example, a camera app asking for read and write
permissions to call logs.) Excessive app permissions may dissuade users from
installing your app. In fact, href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2556978">one study, in which users
were shown two unbranded apps with similar ratings that had the same
functionality but different sets of permission requests, showed that users were,
on average, 3 times more likely to install the app with fewer permissions
requests. And a href="https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/soups2014/soups14-paper-lin.pdf">similar
study showed that users are 1.7 times more likely, on average, to select the
application with fewer permission requests. The rule of thumb is to enable
permissions that are only essential to your app. Read the href="https://developer.android.com/training/articles/user-data-permissions.html">best
practices for app permissions.




href="https://developer.android.com/training/articles/user-data-overview.html">Chart:
Distribution of permission groups use across Arcade Games category.



If you're building an arcade game, you many only need a very few permission
settings, if any.


Listen and respond to your users



Lastly, be attentive to user feedback. It's ultimately the users who drive our
search and discovery systems. When you hear user feedback about bugs or other
issues, we recommend engaging with the feedback and, if needed, updating your
app in a timely manner. Having an up-to-date app that reflects your user's
feedback can help you gain more installs, engagement, and higher ratings. href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213">Beta
testing is a good way to get feedback from real users before launch. You can
also check the href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/138230?hl=en">ratings
and reviews section of the Developer Console to see an analysis of what
users are saying about your app and how that is affecting your rating compared
to similar apps.




Review benchmarks in the Developer Console uses machine learning to give you
insights about what users are saying about your app and how it affects your
rating.




Google Play strives to help users find and discover the most safe, high quality,
useful, and relevant apps. Building apps that put user's interest first will
help you be successful in Google Play. For more tips and best practices for
building a successful app business on Google Play, get the href="http://g.co/play/playbook">Playbook for Developers app.






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