14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to the Google Play Store, we haven’t seen any major changes being applied to it in recent years. But it appears Google has some solid plans of building some modifications into its virtual market place.
The search giant is planning to offer Android developers more flexibility on Google Play and will allow apps to display different icons, descriptions, and even prices for select users.
According to a report from The Information, the search giant is expected to announce these novelties at the Google I/O conference scheduled to take place towards the end of May in San Francisco.
One important option will allow developers to test different versions of their apps’ profile page on the store. This is known as “A/B” testing and allows developers to have some insight into people’s downloading patterns.
Google's changes will make life easier for developers
For example, devs can see how many more people downloaded an app that was sold for $1.99 / €1.76 rather than $2.99 / €2.65. Other subconscious cues are also taken into consideration. For example, Google will display whether people preferred and downloaded apps with red or blue icons.
Developers will then be able to test their theories and see if they have been right in making the app icon green and charging as much as they did.
The report also claims that Google is actually trying to help developers experiment with alternate marketing strategies for different markets around the world. For instance, for a certain country, a particular color combination might draw the attention of local users.
The modifications which we talked about above will apply only to the Google Play listings. The applications users will end up downloading remain unchanged.
But the pricing scheme sounds a little bit tricky. How will developers manage to build a consistent marketing strategy for the apps if their prices are constantly shifting?
Nevertheless, developers will certainly welcome the fact that Google is trying to offer more flexibility. At the same time, the report notes that the Apple App Store doesn’t yet offer something similar, so Google has jumped ahead a little bit.
Hopefully, A/B testing means higher quality apps, more diversity in the Play store, and happier users.