Google Cleans its Play Store

Google has revamped its Play Store by giving it a clean and fresh design enhancing the view and interactivity of the app. The store has redesigned its layout giving images a larger view that jumps off the screen.

The images and the layout of Play Store use brighter colors to help users find the content easily. Not only has the layout been changed but also the purchase process is also simplified. The new Google Play Store is automatically updated on the mobile devices that run on Android 2.2 and above.

The purchase process has also been simplified. It allows users to buy an app without leaving the context of the Play Store. As soon as the purchase is made, the user will be redirected to the page he was earlier on without reconstructing the context of the Play Store.

Developers will now have greater chances to feature their app on the Play Store. The collections that contain the list of recommended and curated apps will now be presented as cards giving more space to the image with a larger touch area. The homepage will have more apps that are displayed effectively so that users can easily find them.

The apps with similar themes are grouped together so that users can find all the apps belonging to the same genre. The users will also find a list of recommendations as they scroll down the page. This will enable them to explore new and user-friendly apps available on Play Store.

With the new layout, Google also guarantees to improve the quality of available apps. In February alone, the some 60,000 apps were removed that did not meet the policies of Google Play.

There are many professional mobile development companies developing user-friendly and quality apps for Play Store. Appostrophic is one of the leading names in mobile app development industry. It has produced a wide collection of Android apps for almost all the categories available on the Play Store.

Google Fighting the Android Battle

Android is unquestionably the biggest rival of iOS apps. Sharing a major chunk of the app market, Android is a threat to iOS domination. Google Play Store--Android app provider—grew by leaps and bounds, mainly due to its Open Source Platform. It provides more chances to app developers for publishing their app.

There are almost 700,000 apps on Play Store with 25 billion downloads to date. With such a high download rate, Android will soon succeed in capturing the iOS market. Google is playing a very important role in marketing the Android apps. Being a search engine giant, Google helps many users in discovering new and popular apps.

Recent reports suggest that Google is making it difficult for iOS to surface in the search results. There are various factors affecting the search results for iTune apps. Firstly, the popularity of the app, using ”iTunes” with  the search term “iTunes” and lastly whether the user is logged in or not with their Google account, affecting the search results.

Using common search terms “app name + iTunes” do not give direct links to iTune store links up to at least first 5 pages. Not only are sole iOS apps de-ranked but also the iOS version of popular apps, such as Facebook and Whatsapp, are pushed down. However, the Android version of these popular apps appears at the top of the first page. Although the iTunes ranking improves on Google page if the user is signed in with the Google account.

The algorithm of Google has always been a mystery but this change has raised a few eyebrows. However, the search penalty has not affected all of the iTunes app. Popular apps like Twitter can still be found at the bottom of the first page. But there is no denying that the algorithm for ranking iTunes apps has been changed, which will in turn affect the way people discover app as Google is the undisputed king of search engine.

Appostrophic strongly believes in producing user-friendly and interactive mobile apps. The company not only develops creative apps but also escorts you to the strategic and well-planned journey of marketing. It offers SEO services so that your app ranks higher in the Google page.