Google expands third-party billing support to more countries

Android developers in more countries now have the option to offer third-party billing options.

As spotted by 9to5Google, Google quietly expanded its ‘User Choice Billing’ pilot which allows third-party billing options in non-gaming apps.

Registered developers in the European Economic Area (EEA), India, Australia, Japan, and Indonesia can now participate in User Choice Billing.

A Google spokesperson said:

“Android has always been a uniquely open...

6 September 2022 | Android

Huawei AppGallery vulnerability gives away paid apps for free

A vulnerability has been discovered in Huawei’s AppGallery that enables paid apps to be downloaded for free.

Huawei claims that AppGallery is now the third-largest app store in the world—serving over 600 million Huawei device users in over 170 countries/regions.

Dylan Roussel, an Android developer, wanted to know how Huawei’s APIs worked. He figured out that one API took an app’s package name as a parameter and returned a JSON object with the details of the...

19 May 2022 | Android

ARCore Geospatial API helps developers build immersive experiences

During I/O 2022, Google launched its ARCore Geospatial API to help developers build more immersive, richer, and more useful experiences.

Augmented reality experiences are beginning to gain traction beyond Pokémon Go. Now there are AR apps for making floorplans, seeing how furnishings will look in your home, understanding the world around you, and even getting real-time information about the night sky.

Google showed off enhancements to its own AR solution, Lens, during...

12 May 2022 | Android

Android Studio will soon help developers fix broken UIs on Chromebooks

Android Studio will soon make it much easier for developers to fix broken UIs when their apps are used on Chromebooks.

Chromebook users have suffered from all sorts of issues since Google enabled support for Android apps. Many of these problems stem from how apps designed for Android respond when confronted with freeform windows and other desktop features.

The ‘Electric Eel’ release of Android Studio will bring with it the new Desktop Android Virtual Device...

9 May 2022 | Android

Play Store blocks users in Russia from purchasing or updating paid apps

Google is blocking users in Russia from purchasing or updating paid applications as the fallout continues from the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The company paused billing for Russian users on 10 March 2022 due to sanctions imposed on the country. That decision impacted new app purchases, as well as in-app purchases and subscription payments.

However, Google has now updated its policy and says that it is “blocking the downloading of paid apps and updates to paid...

6 May 2022 | Android

Google’s new Play Store section forces developers to explain their data collection

Google is rolling out a new section in Play Store listings that forces developers to explain what data they’re collecting and how it’s being used.

The new section is titled ‘Data safety’ and will appear alongside the usual sections like ‘About this app’ and ‘Ratings and reviews’:

Apple released a similar feature as part of numerous privacy-enhancing features in last year’s iOS 14. Google showed off its version last year but is only beginning to roll...

27 April 2022 | Android

Google will hide outdated Android apps to improve security

Google will start hiding outdated apps on the Play Store in a bid to improve security.

With almost three million apps hosted on the Play Store, keeping Android’s three billion users protected is a gargantuan task.

Given the scale of the challenge, Google’s AI-powered security does an admirable job. However, Google’s system is far from perfect and software that poses a threat to users does slip through.

Sometimes the apps that slip past Google’s security...

7 April 2022 | Android

CAF report highlights developers’ plight from anti-competitive practices

A report from the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) highlights the difficulties that developers face due to anti-competitive practices.

CAF is an independent nonprofit with over 60 member companies that advocates for freedom of choice and fair competition across the app ecosystem. Epic Games, which has regularly made headlines for its court battles against Apple over alleged anti-competitive practices, is one of CAF’s founding members.

The industry group is currently...

1 February 2022 | Android

App Annie: Users downloaded 230B apps in 2021, spent 3.8T hours using them

A report from App Annie highlights the staggering growth the mobile app ecosystem witnessed last year.

According to the analytics firm’s State of Mobile 2022 report, users downloaded around 230 billion apps in 2021.

Theodore Krantz, Chief Executive Officer of App Annie, said:

“The big screen is slowly dying as mobile continues to break records in virtually every category - time spent, downloads and revenue.”

Chinese users downloaded the most...

12 January 2022 | Android

More developers earn $1M via the App Store than Google Play, but the gap is closing

A report from Sensor Tower finds that more developers still earn their first $1 million from the App Store than Google Play, but the gap is closing.

It’s been fairly common knowledge for some time now that, on average, developers earn more from the App Store over Google’s counterpart—despite the much larger global marketshare of the latter.

Android commands around 73 percent of the global smartphone market compared to 26 percent for iOS. However, Apple continues to...

23 December 2021 | Android