Getting your app featured on Google Play – What to do and not to do

Looking at my recent app sales / downloads and feeling quite disappointed I sat wondering why none of my apps have yet been featured on Google Play. I searched around and around and finally found something that could explain why. A recent-ish (2012 to be exact) talk by Dan Galpin and Ian Lewis at the Google I/O conference offered up some dos and donts when it comes to “possibly” being featured on Google Play. The video of the Google I/O event can be watched here.

A basic summary is shown below:

  1. Make sure app works on latest OS release (hide soft buttons too)
  2. Do not enable copy protection in Google Play developer console (this has already been removed)
  3. Use back button to pop up pause menu or return to previous screen
  4. Respect Android life cycle. One tip, when game returns from paused state, pop up a game paused menu and never lose game progress
  5. Don’t use certain permissions if your app doesn’t really use them such as read / write SMS, change wifi state etc..
  6. Conserve system resources (memory, battery etc..)
  7. Follow Google’s rules such as a) dont use other 3rd party IAP API’s b) Do not upload apps that download others apps c) Do not bribe users for 5 star reviews
  8. IAP must be done correctly, including taking into account situation where purchase was not delivered because the app was paused or shut down
  9. Make sure game works and runs well across wide variety of different devices
  10. Get app store listing correct and make sure that the featured images are ok at a low resolution, such as text can be read. Don’t include keyword spamming or phrases such as “if you like xxxx then” or use over salesy type language

There are more tips, so its well worth watching the video.

Good luck with getting your app or game featured on Google Play.

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