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Google Play Developer Console Gets an Update
May 25th, 2017
by David Bell
CEO at Gummicube, Inc.
At the Google I/O Developer Conference , the tech company announced the new updates coming to the Google Play Console to help developers create more apps and improve their current app’s performance. Last year for the Play Store alone, users downloaded 82 billion apps, and now there are 2 billion active Android devices around the world. These stats reinforce the importance for more data regarding where users are coming from details if the app struggling to get visibility. This data would help developers understand what channels their app gets the highest traffic from along with information regarding their app’s performance in the Play Store. Google has continually tried adding more tools and features that help developers publish apps, but now developers will have specific data regarding app crashes, a dashboard to track and monitor metrics after a release and more.
Breakdown of the New Features
The Google Play Developer Console was updated with new tools to improve their app’s performance. Here is a list of the new tools available to developers on the Play Console: 1. Android Vitals This tool allows developers to monitor and fix any ongoing issues to improve user experience. Data can view aggregated or anonymized by device from users that provide crucial data from their certified Android device. 
This tool is mostly for understanding stability (crash rates and App Not Responding [ANR] Rates), battery usage (stuck wake locks and excessive wakeups) and rendering time (slow rendering or frozen UI frames.) 2. Release Management The Release Management tool had several new features added to help developers understand key metrics tied to their app’s release. 
I. Release Dashboard: Tracks a release as it happens by monitoring how the release affects important metrics.
II. Android Instant Apps: Can iterate quickly with a developer to gather feedback from trusted users on the pre-release. This also allows for users to test the app without having to install to their device’s home screen.
III. Device catalog: Developers can search and filter across device data for thousands of certified Android Devices. This tool shows the number of installs, rating and revenue contributed by each device. Developers can also use this tool to make specific exclusions to certain devices based on RAM and more.
IV. App Signing: Developers can now securely transfer their key to Google to manage an app on their behalf. Those that opt-in for upcoming assistive services like app optimization for APK size, will have their APK versions delivered via Google to save data.
3. User Acquisition Acquisition Reports can help developers understand where users are coming from and if they go on to install and buy in-app content. The report also includes retained installer data, which further breaks down to data on specific channels and geographies that drive valuable users who keep the app installed for up-to or over 30 days.
4. Financial Reports Google has added the subscriptions dashboard which lets developers see how their app’s subscriptions are performing. Monitoring their subscriptions performance allows for developers to make any necessary business decisions to improve revenue growth. Developers can also analyze the total number of subscribers, revenue and retention across multiple dimensions. The new tools Google has added to the Play Console will surely help developers understand their users better along with the capabilities to monitor their app’s current performance in the Play Store to make any necessary improvements over time.
Key Takeaways
Aspects of both the Apple and Google Play updates are very similar, showing that Apple and Google understand that developers need key information to make vital changes to their app’s performance to retain and engage with users better. These improved tools to the Google Play Developer Console will help developers ensure the development of quality apps and generate more revenue to grow their businesses.
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