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ASO Weekly - Shuffles App, Google Play Games & More

August 26th, 2022

ASO Weekly - Shuffles App, Google Play Games & More
David Bell

by David Bell

CEO at Gummicube, Inc.

Welcome to this week’s ASO Weekly – Gummicube’s recurring segment where we discuss some of the biggest events in the mobile app industry, app store developments, and how they may affect your App Store Optimization (ASO) strategy.

This week, we’ll be exploring:

  • Pinterest's new, invite-only app goes viral on TikTok
  • Google Play releases games for PC in 5 countries
  • 2,000 malicious personal loan apps were removed from the Play Store

Pinterest’s “Shuffles” App Becomes a Quick Hit with Gen Z’ers

Pinterest soft-launched a collage-maker maker app called, Shuffles quietly. The app, now used by hundreds of thousands of users, has been climbing up the charts on the Apple App Store. Gen Z users are particularly drawn to the app with its cross-platform compatibility – more specifically, TikTok.

However, Shuffles’ popularity is partially fueled by its current exclusivity. As of now, the app is invite-only and an iOS exclusive (for now). Users get 5 total invites to give to their friends, so the reach is relatively limited, but it hasn’t stopped the app from climbing the charts.

Shuffles dances around the Top 10 Lifestyle apps on the U.S. App Store. While the app hasn’t officially launched on iOS, this may be an attempt by Pinterest to win over a dwindling segment of users and bring forth an integration adjacent to some of the most popular social media apps and within its own ecosystem.

An app soft launch is a great ASO marketing strategy to build up hype and work out any kinks in user experience along the way. Using ASO technology can help you find what keywords users search for when trying to find an app.

Google removed 2,000 Predatory Apps from Play Store

Google and scores of other firms have been racing to crack down on predatory lending apps in India that have been found to charge exorbitant fees from customers in some cases and push ethical boundaries in their collection efforts. Some of these predatory lending apps have also garnered headlines for collection efforts that lead people to suicide.

TechCrunch illustrated this scenario in an in-depth interview with a victim (“Laxmi”) of an app called Fast Coin, where she took out a principle loan of only $100 dollars to pay off her rent for the month:

“Laxmi turned to a startup loan platform rather than a bank for many of the same reasons others do: she did not have the minimum salary typically needed for banks and other financial institutions in India to disburse loans, and upstarts generally not only require less vetting but their turnaround times are faster, and she needed to get the money in a single day to pay for her house rent. So instead of going to a bank, she chose to get the loan from Fast Coin, an app her office colleague suggested.She had repaid the loan within a couple of weeks of getting her salary the following month, but she claims that in the following months, she paid a further $630 over and above the original loan amount to get rid of abusive calls and messages.”

Google has now removed over 2,000 predatory and malicious apps from the Indian market and also put in place a rule that app developers and servicers must provide customers with at least 60 days to make repayment on their platform.

Google Play Games Soft Launches in 5 Countries

As reported by The Verge, Google announced the rollout of Google Play Games for PC in South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Australia. Users in these countries will get to play games from Android on their Windows computers. While the initial release of this integration and platform was first rolled out in beta, it looks as though Google is helping close the switching and continuity costs across their user experience.

This expansion could potentially expand Google’s gaming ecosystem to 2.5 billion worldwide.

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