Big Google Play Store rankings change coming November

Google has published today in a blog post that the Play Store ranking system will be undergoing a revamp, reports Android Authority, and one of the new changes will be effective starting November, while the other, in early 2022.

There's a big change coming to the way Play Store ratings are shown

Google has announced that starting November, ratings in the Play Store will be localized, which will basically make some apps have different ratings in different regions of the world. Another change that's going to be coming to the Play Store ratings is scheduled for next year: ratings will be specialized to reflect even the form factor of the device of the user.

Currently, apps and games on the Google Play Store have an aggregated rating, taking into account all the ratings from user reviews globally and then displaying an average score for each app. However, this is going to change in November when Google will be replacing global app ratings with a localized ones.

The results from ratings and reviews will again be aggregated and an average score will be showing for each app and game; however, these ratings will be country-specific. This means that an app can have one rating in the US and a completely different one in Japan.

Google stated in the blog post that these efforts are put in place to reflect a more helpful rating. The example the tech giant gives talks about a bug, present in only one country, affecting the entire rating of the app on the Play Store.

Form-factor will be reflected in Play Store ratings in 2022

Another change coming later on, in 2022, is that Google plans to make Play Store ratings even more useful to its users by taking into account the device's form-factor when displaying a score. This means tablet users' scores and reviews will be aggregated and visible only for other tablet users, and the same is with phones.

This change is a welcome improvement, and it will include not only tablets and phones but also foldable phones and Android Auto apps.

Google gives an example of this change with an app that has been improved for a tablet experience but is getting overlooked because of many reviews of smartphone users.

Google has not given a specific rollout date for the update that will take into account a device's form factor. It stated that it will be coming early next year.

This is the second big change to the Play Store recently

At the beginning of this month, Google also launched another useful change coming to the Play Store, related to the way apps are submitted by developers for the store. The new rule necessitates developers to submit their applications via the newer AAB (Android App Bundle) framework instead of the APK framework used previously.

However, this change isn't only reflecting on developers. The new method of app delivery allows for greater compartmentalization of components within the app, therefore ensuring a smoother experience and optimization to your specific Android phone.

Another improvement this change will bring users is that it will limit unnecessary clutter every user has to download with an app. For example, with the older format, if a developer wanted their app to be available on multiple Android device types (smartphones and tablets), all the necessary particularities and graphics for each device will have to be bundled all together into a single application on the Play Store.

The new change also brings improved optimizations and reduced load for each phone. The latter is especially necessary for phones with weaker processors or older and budget-friendly devices. The new way apps are loaded from the Play Store should ensure weaker phones will receive less strain on their processors.