Hi everyone,
Wow, 2025 is already moving quickly!
We kicked off the year with a look back at how we kept the app ecosystem safe in 2024, preventing over 2.36 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play. Building trust and maintaining a secure ecosystem are foundational to everything we do at Google Play, and this includes making it easier for developers to build secure apps. In fact, our most recent analysis found over 50 times more Android malware from Internet-sideloaded sources than on Google Play.
In March, at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, we connected with thousands of game developers to share how we're enhancing the gaming experience. For players, this means easier access to more of the games they love across mobile and PC, with improved gameplay and more ways to get rewarded. For developers, we're providing better tools to build high-quality Android games and grow their PC game businesses on Play.
The year may be flying by, but we’ve still got plenty of big updates to come! Discover more of what we accomplished together last quarter below.
Making Play the best destination for games
Whether they prefer casual mobile games or immersive multiplayer PC titles, Play is there for gamers from discovery to gameplay and beyond.
Google Play Games: Bigger catalog, better gameplay, and more player rewards
Google Play Games continues to evolve, offering more titles across PC and mobile, wider device compatibility for PC games, enhanced personalization through custom controls, and a more rewarding experience with Play Points.
- Growing the games catalog across PC and mobile: We’re adding more native PC titles this year like "Game of Thrones: Kingsroad," "Sonic Rumble," and "ODIN: VALHALLA RISING," and bringing more PC games to mobile like “DREDGE” with more games coming this year including “Disco Elysium” and “TABS Mobile.”
- Expanded device support: Google Play Games is now available on more laptop and desktop devices, including AMD and Intel devices.
- More personalization with custom controls: Gamers can now personalize how they want to use their mouse and keyboard, customizing which key triggers which in-game action. You can now also add keyboard controls to any mobile game.
- More rewards: Gamers get a more rewarding Play Points experience on PC with a limited-time 10x points booster for PC purchases, allowing them to earn and redeem more. (Activate the booster by Apr 30, 2025. Terms apply.) Their Play Points balance is now also easier to track across mobile and PC.
Google Play Games on PC: Making Google Play the best place to grow PC games
As more players enjoy immersive PC gaming and the flexibility to play their favorite games across screens, we’re making even bigger investments to make Google Play the best place for PC and multi-platform games. This includes a more comprehensive native PC program with a dedicated SDK for native PC games, streamlined distribution for mobile and PC game builds in Play Console, and a new earnback program to drive growth.
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Play Store enhancements for games: New ways to earn rewards and track progress
We're making it easier for players to get more value and satisfaction from their games with new ways to earn rewards and follow their progress.
- Quests and stamp cards: Late last year, we launched quests and stamp cards on Games Home, allowing gamers to earn rewards for spending in their favorite games. This past quarter, we expanded this to search results to help more gamers discover and complete them.
- Achievements: Games with achievements now feature a clearer, more visible tag on their details page. Users can also filter their search results to find them more easily, allowing them to track their progress and pursue in-game goals.
Helping people discover content they’ll love
We launched new tools and features to connect people with their favorite apps and games while helping developers reach their ideal audiences.
Play Store enhancements: Better recommendations and cleaner reviews
We made several improvements to the Play Store this quarter to help people discover more amazing apps and games.
- More personalized recommendations: Search results now highlight top-tier games, with more personalized recommendations based on past gameplay.
- AI-powered spam detection: We implemented new logic to remove irrelevant and off-topic reviews and to prevent spam from artificially inflating app rankings.
- Improved app notification reminders: To help users rediscover high-quality apps they’ve downloaded but not opened, we improved our notifications with images and clear reasons to open.
Widget discovery: Helping users get the most out of their home screen
Widgets give users quick access to important app information and functions, like weather or calendar updates, right on their home screen. To help users find these tools more easily, we added three new features: a widgets search filter, widget badges on app detail pages, and a new page showcasing the best widgets. These updates make it easier to find and use widgets, and helps developers have more opportunities to increase engagement and user retention.
Where to Watch expansion: Helpful streaming results in more markets
Our content search feature helps people find out where to stream their favorite movies and TV shows. This experience launched in the US in October 2024 and has expanded to 10 more markets including India, Brazil, and Japan.
New curated spaces: Highlighting the season’s top sporting events
Curated spaces on Google Play help users explore their passions, all in one place. Our latest spaces focused on March Madness (college basketball in the US), baseball in Korea, and cricket in India. These temporary spaces offer sports fans new content daily, including match highlights, editorial articles, and interactive polls on the Apps Home tab.
Editorial recommendations: Celebrating global moments
We started 2025 by celebrating diverse moments and communities on Google Play. In January, our “New Year New You” campaign focused on wellness with original illustrations emphasizing self-care, while our Lunar New Year hub celebrated the holiday across Asia. For Black History Month, we showcased apps and games by Black developers, and honored Women’s History Month with curated collections of apps, games, and books celebrating women.
Driving global growth with secure, frictionless payments
Google Play Commerce helps users make seamless, secure purchases and unlocks international revenue growth for apps and games businesses.
Improved purchase experiences: Giving users more ways to pay
We're making it easier and more convenient for users to pay for their favorite apps and games with a wide range of payment options and enhanced security measures.
- Streamlined purchase authentication: Now, users can consent to using on-device biometrics, like fingerprint or face recognition, for a seamless two-factor authentication during Play onboarding, Store opens and installs, and Android setup on Samsung and Xiaomi devices.
- Expanded OCR scanning support: Instead of typing in their card details, OCR scanning allows people to add their credit card information by scanning the card with their phone camera. We recently expanded this feature from 31 to 234 markets, making it easier for users to add a payment method and check out.
- Even more payment options: Google Play offers over 300 local payment methods across 65+ markets, with new payment methods added regularly. Recently, we launched support for local currencies in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, and Senegal.
Subscription upgrades: Clearer value for users, seamless management for developers
We're improving the subscription experience, giving users a better understanding of their benefits and offering developers efficient tools for optimization and retention.
- Showcasing subscription value: We've added clearer subscription benefits to the Subscription Center, helping users to make the most of their subscriptions.
- Renewal notifications: To help developers reduce churn, renewal notifications now remind users of the value of their subscriptions at the end of introductory periods and season passes, as well as at the usual renewal time.
- Payment update prompt: To help prevent failed renewals, we now notify subscribers when their primary payment method is invalid and encourage them to update it before the renewal date.
- Renewal flow optimization: Developers can now instantly test subscription renewal flows in the Play Billing Lab app, significantly reducing the previous 30-minute delay.
Boosting trust with safer, high-quality experiences
Google Play enables high-quality experiences for all users by prioritizing secure and seamless interactions, empowering developer tools, and robust platform protections. At the beginning of the year, we shared a look back at how we kept the app ecosystem safe in 2024. In March, we shared some of the past quarter’s contributions to that ongoing effort, including plans for enhanced developer tools and experiences.
Updates to Google Play Protect: Alerting users more quickly to potential threats
Last year, we announced live threat detection through Google Play Protect. If a harmful app is found, users receive a real-time alert, allowing them to take immediate action to protect their device. Now, live threat detection is expanding to target malicious applications that try to impersonate financial apps.
Expanded badging: Helping users find trusted apps
For apps in certain categories, we offer badges that provide an extra layer of validation and connect users with safe and high-quality experiences. Building on last year’s “Government” badge, we introduced a “Verified” badge this year for secure VPN services. To earn it, apps must complete a Mobile Application Security Assessment (MASA) Level 2 validation, meet strict security standards, and pass our internal safety evaluations.
Health Connect policy update: Improving health data privacy
We updated our Health Connect policy to strengthen safeguards regarding users’ sensitive health records. It requires developers to justify why their app needs access to health record data, and explain how this access will directly benefit users. Previously, this policy only covered fitness, activity, vitals, and sleep data, but now it’s expanded to include more sensitive health records, such as vaccination records, lab results, procedures, and pregnancy information.
Improved pre-review checks: Preventing app review surprises and streamlining launches
Last year, we launched pre-review checks in Play Console, which help developers identify and resolve certain policy and compatibility issues like critical app quality issues (e.g. crashes) and incomplete policy declarations, before they submit their apps for review. We recently added the ability to check privacy policy links and login credential requirements before review, and soon we’ll be launching even more pre-review checks to help developers avoid common policy pitfalls.
Better developer tools for quality: Preventing issues and enhancing user experiences
To help developers build high-quality apps with great user experiences, we made several big improvements to Play Console, including a redesigned app dashboard to streamline workflows, and added new metrics to help identify and address performance issues.
- Redesigned app dashboard: We've launched a brand-new design for the app dashboard in Play Console, centralizing developers’ most essential insights within four core developer journeys. Each section highlights three key metrics for a quick overview of their app's status and easy performance comparisons. For example, developers can now quickly compare their latest release’s crash rate to their app’s overall crash rate.
- Pre-review checks for large screen layouts: To prevent layout issues, we launched pre-review checks for incorrect edge-to-edge title rendering in collaboration with Samsung. We also launched a new check that identifies potential large-screen layout problems before release and provides the resources to fix them.
- Quality issues: Last year, we expanded the types of quality issues we surface with a new panel on Android vitals, giving developers a prioritized view of the issues that affect their users. For example, we might alert a developer to higher than normal crash rates as well as recommendations on improving app quality with clear instructions on how to tackle both. We recently expanded the visibility of this panel on the release dashboard to help developers quickly discover and address any issues with their apps’ latest release.
- Low memory kills metrics: We've launched a new metric in Play Console and the Reporting API that helps developers identify and address memory-related app issues. Device-specific insights for this metric are also available.
Championing our global developer community
Our global developer community is the heart of Play, so we’re constantly looking for new ways to celebrate their successes and offer the resources they need to grow their businesses.
#WeArePlay: Shining a spotlight on the global developer community
Our first #WeArePlay film of the year tells the inspiring story of Canadian expat Bruce and his friend Peter who discovered a life-changing idea on the Isle of Man. Inspired by their mothers' love of old family pictures, they developed Memory Lane Games, which turns cherished memories into engaging experiences for people with dementia and stimulates cognitive function. With a commitment to reconnecting families through shared memories, Bruce and Peter are now exploring the cutting-edge potential of generative AI, using Google Gemini to create hyper-personalized content that resonates with each individual's unique experiences.
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And with that, the momentum continues. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements to be shared at Google I/O in May. We also look forward to connecting with developer communities around the world at our I/O Connect events in Berlin, Bengaluru, and Shanghai throughout the summer.
Excited for what’s next,
Sam Bright
VP & GM, Google Play + Developer Ecosystem