Google Play adds topic pages, audio previews, and new subscription tools for developers

Summary

Google is rolling out a series of upgrades to its Play Store to help Android app developers better market their software and services to consumers. Among the highlights are new tools for managing subscription apps, topic pages that let users explore a specific subject on the Play Store, a new feature that allows people to sample audio from developers’ apps, and a more flexible checkout experience that will make it easier for developers to sell add-ons, among other things. Google last week shared a number of Android-related announcements at a pre-show before the start of its annual developer conference, Google I/O. However, it saved the Play Store improvements for Tuesday’s keynote at Google I/O, highlighting their importance to Google’s bottom line. Today, tech giants like Apple and Google are facing a market where app developers have more choice in how they price and sell their mobile software, thanks to anticompetitive regulations, new laws, and recent court victories. As a result, Google has been working to make its own Android app marketplace more compelling for developers, who now collectively sell over a quarter-billion subscriptions. For starters, the company said it’s giving developers the useful ability to halt fully live app releases if the developer identifies a problem that needs to be quickly addressed. Another feature, initially only available in the U.S., will add new “topic browse” pages for media and entertainment on the Play Store, allowing users to connect with apps related to over 100,000 different shows and movies. For example, you could look up a favorite show, movie, or sports event and find out which apps you could use to stream them. (Plus, the existing “Where to Watch” feature that deep links users to their subscribed apps will roll out to the U.K., Korea, Indonesia, and Mexico after it initially launched in the U.S. last year.) These pages will be accessible from multiple places within the Play Store, including the Apps Home page, store li...