14 DAY TRIAL // Google has just announced in a Twitter message that it has updated its Android Market application with a new feature called “Recent Changes”. The update targets Android application devs, as well as users that are interested to find out what changes are introduced by the updates they are about to install.
Basically, the “Recent Changes” feature provides developers with the option to add notes about the changes specific to the newest version of their application, in the form of a standard change log
So far, developers had to resort to all sorts of workarounds to include this info, like adding it to the app description or to a popup displayed by the application on first run.
Developers are advised to submit data to this newly introduced “Recent changes” field, as it is related to each of the application's versions. This means that additional info needs to be submitted for each update.
Google also stated that previous changes will not be displayed to the user at this time, but the feature may be available in the future.
The new “Recent changes” field will now appear under the application Description, in the Android Market.
As a side note, Google said that the new update will not have any impact on the search index.
The last Android Market improvement dates back to October, when Google updated it for older iterations of the OS, including Android 2.1 and 1.6.
The update added features such as new tabbed layout for individual applications and the ability to automatically update apps. These features were only available to Android 2.2 “Froyo” users.
Just before that, the Android Market was updated to display applications' prices in users' local currency, instead of the developer's local currency.
Google has confirmed that Android Market had surpassed the 100,000 applications mark in October, three months after the market hitting 70,000 apps.