Google Play Store

Last September, Google announced that in one year’s time, all apps distributed through the Play Store would have to use Play Billing for in-app purchases. Following last week’s big antitrust lawsuit, the company announced today that it’s letting developers request an extension for adopting this policy change.

On the first day of this year’s Games Developer Conference, Google introduced a handful of Android 12-specific features to improve the gameplay experience, including a game dashboard and the ability to get into titles much faster.

In response to the lawsuit filed by attorneys general from 36 states and Washington DC over alleged Play Store antitrust practices, Google has issued a public-facing counter this evening. 

In the US, Google is already subject to advertising and Search complaints. Several US states are now targeting the Google Play Store in a new antitrust lawsuit.

Google is readying a major overhaul of its smartwatch platform and provided an emulator “preview” of the underlying UI changes at I/O 2021. A Wear OS 3.0 redesign of the on-wearable Google Play Store is now beginning to roll out.

Google introduced the Android App Bundle format in May of 2018 at I/O as part of its modern development push. The AAB standard will become the default for new applications published to the Play Store this August. 

At I/O 2021, Google made a big push for building apps across all the form factors Android is available on. The company is now massively encouraging adoption with the global launch of the Play Media Experience Program to get more apps on Wear OS, Android/Google TV, Auto, and tablets/foldables.

Wear OS made waves at I/O 2021 with talk of a unified platform in partnership with Samsung, new apps, Fitbit integration, and Android 11 update. However, in the short-term, Google mentioned today that the next Wear OS platform update will be available in the “coming weeks.”

With every major OS release, Android has continued to iterate on privacy and security features. Google announced today that the Play Store is adding a “safety section” that all Android applications must fill out to “help people understand the data an app collects or shares.”

Google today announced new policies and guidelines for how Android apps can present themselves in the Play Store. This is meant to ensure that end users are not misled by app listings.