Google Just Announced Changes to its Play Store

Play Store

Google (NASDAQ:$GOOGL) just announced that it will be rolling out a change to its Play Store. The changes will give precedence to better-performing apps – those that experience fewer crashes and don’t drain your battery – over apps that have bugs and performance issues.

What’s the point? Well, according to Google, this new ranking algorithm will help to make sure that the best apps are the ones being promoted, which can lead to an increase in app usage and engagement.

Google decided to go forward with these changes after having realized that around half of the 1-star reviews on the Play Store were centered around app stability problems.

Not surprisingly, apps that don’t function well frustrate users, who then turn to the reviews section to express their complaints. As time goes on, a handful of bad reviews and low star ratings have the ability to impact the app’s place in the charts and search results. However, if an app has enough popularity, a massive number of installs can still override negative reviews, thus pushing the app back up the ladder.

With this new ranking algorithm update, developers with buggy apps are now being forced  to address their issues. If not, they will be penalized.

The Mountain View, California-based company commenced rolling out the change this week, but only to a small sample size of users. However, it’s already seeing noteworthy results. After the update, Google found that those who installed higher quality apps would then go on to use them more, and uninstall them less.

The algorithm changes will continue to roll out over the next week across the Play Store worldwide, Google says. As a result, it will affect both the charts and the search results.

Featured Image: Depositphotos/© Mactrunk


About the author: Caroline Harris is a third-year student at Capilano University in North Vancouver, Canada. Having already completed an Associates Degree in Psychology, Caroline is now finishing her Bachelor's degree in Communications. In preparation for working in the advertisement sector, Caroline is writing financial content and analysis. On a daily basis, Caroline works on articles regarding the following topics: finance, cryptocurrency, technology, and politics.