Battery draining unstable Android apps to receive less visibility from Google

It shouldn't come as a surprise to you that Google expects developers to submit apps to the Play Store that work great, look great, and run smoothly without a hitch. Your own personal experience might have revealed how this isn't always the case. During Google I/O this past week, the Alphabet subsidiary made it clear that when it comes to apps, the search giant wants developers to follow the rule of the three S's; apps should be speedy, secure and stable.

New tools being provided to developers will allow them to see how often their apps do not respond (the ANR rate), how often they crash, render slowly, and suffer from frozen frames. Google also wants to point out those apps that have a stuck wake lock that keeps a device awake for over an hour. Additionally, excessive wake-ups are also considered a no-no. That is when an app wakes up a device ten or more times in a single hour.

Developers looking through their app's metrics will see an error icon next to any category where a specific app scores poorly. And if a particular app is in the bottom 25% of certain measurement rankings for stability, battery drain or rendering, its developer will be hearing from Google. Those apps that score in the bottom quartile will be punished by losing some visibility in the Google Play Store.

The plan is to get developers to improve legitimate apps while weeding out fake apps, or those that developers don't really care about. If you are an app developer by profession, or just part-time, click on the sourcelink to see if any of your apps fall inside the bottom 25% and need some TLC to improve the user experience.

source: Google via Engadget