Android app quality standards according to Google — Part 2
Before we continue our journey in the standards set by Google, I recommend that you take a look to the first part of this article if you haven’t see it already
Android app quality standards according to Google | by Badr Kouki | Feb, 2021 | Medium
In the first part of the article we discussed the standards in 3 aspects
- UI, UX and Graphics
- App performance
- Privacy and Data security
in this part we will discuss on details the remaining aspects
- App functionality
- Publishing Apps on Google Play
Functionality
In this aspect developers should synchronize between Google’s standards and the app needs, in this field Google have a set of shoulds and shouldn’ts in integrating Audio, Media, Service background.
Audio
The app should resume the Audio once the app re-enter the foreground or at least indicate that the audio is paused, but in the case where Audio playback is a core functionality (Music App) the app should support background playback.
Another core standard is the use of ‘audio focus’, when starting any audio the app should request audio focus and abandon it as soon as the audio stops and the App should handle other apps requests for audio focus.
Media
Any app that play audio in the background it must use a styled notification with ‘MediaStyle’ class
Starting from Android 8 (API Level 26), If the app plays video it should support picture-in-picture PIP.
Background Services
The app avoids running background when it’s possible, in order to maintain good device performance the system applies restrictions on background services, to make sure your background service is safe from restrictions you must avoid implementing some functionality in services:
- Maintaining a network connection for notifications
- Maintaining a Bluetooth connection
- Keeping on the GPS
It’s highly recommended that any App supports the power management features Doze & Standby, those APIs were introduced in Android 6, to learn more about implemented Doze and Standby features here’s an official link from Google’s documentation Optimize for Doze and App Standby | Android Developers
Google Play guidelines
After we have been following Google’s guidelines in designing and developing our apps, in order to publish our app on the store there’s certain standards we need to follow.
Policies
The app should follow all the terms of Google Play Developer Policy such as does not use inappropriate content or use intellectual property
App details page
- Should contain high-quality graphics
- Does not contain device images, screenshots or unreadable small text
- The details page should not resemble an advertisement
- Does not show non-Android devices
For more details about all the terms and policy please refer the those links
Conclusion
In those two parts of the article we discussed about all the aspects where Google has set a list of standards to follow some of them are obligations and other are just recommendation to build more professional apps, it’s up to you to get the most of those recommendations.
For more information about how to deploy your app on the store and what is the process of publishing apps please refer the the links in the next section
References
Core app quality | Android Developers
Improve Android App Quality to Rank Better on Google Play Store — Bitbar
Google’s Core App Quality Checklist shows you how to build a quality app (xda-developers.com)
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