The ultimate purpose of any app or game is to deliver value to users by being
useful or fun, both on first use and over time. An app or game can't
be considered high quality if it doesn't achieve this goal, no matter what else
it does well.
The purpose of an app or game should align with the needs of its target
audience. Apps and games that address unique user needs, or solve problems in
an original way, increase their potential value to users.
To build a high-quality app or game, follow these guidelines.
Content and feature depth
The amount of content and features in your app has a direct impact on your
ability to deliver value to users. Make sure you understand the needs of your
target audience, support their core use cases, and consider their preferences
and capabilities. For example, a calculator app for primary school children
shouldn't have the same feature set as a calculator app for structural
engineers.
Increasing the amount of content or features in your app may increase your
user value, but this shouldn't come at the cost of cluttered menus,
outdated content or buggy features.
Android offers an increasing
array of choices for users beyond mobile
. If it
makes sense for your title, support multiple form factors to enable users to
get more from your app or game. For example, imagine a fitness tracker on a
phone that can sync a user's heart rate from their watch; or imagine a mobile
game that users can also play on their PC.
Marketing assets
The way that you market your app or game influences users' expectations of its
capabilities and informs their decision on whether to install it. Marketing
assets should accurately reflect your app or game and represent your intended
audience and use cases. Any discrepancy between what you promise and what you
deliver can damage your core value and hurt your user metrics.
User metrics
User metrics such as ratings, engagement, and retention metrics, are a direct
way to evaluate whether you're delivering value to users. By comparing these
metrics with those of other apps, you can assess how the core value of your app
or game compares with others that target similar or related user needs.
Acquisition metrics are not generally considered to be a good measure of core
value, as they can be influenced by marketing spend and other factors that
aren't related to the capabilities of your app.
Google Play guidelines
If you distribute on Google Play, follow these additional core-value guidelines.
Tools to monitor and improve core value
Use
Play Console
to optimize and
localize your
store assets
,
monitor your
user metrics
,
and compare with
your peers
.
Making improvements to your app that improve your
ratings and reviews
is
a great way to improve core value and make your app more attractive to users.
Discovery and featuring
Google Play considers
all aspects of core value
, including your Play
marketing assets and user metrics, when evaluating what titles to promote and
where.
Play also uses user metrics to evaluate the quality of your app. We consider
many
user engagement metrics
including uninstalls and active users.