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Google Play is updating the way you handle one-time merchandise, introducing a brand new three-level hierarchy for outlining and promoting digital objects.

The brand new mannequin consists of:

• One-time product: Defines the merchandise being bought (e.g., “Diamond sword”).
• Buy choice: Dictates how the merchandise is granted, its value, and availability. Now you can use “purchase” or “lease” choices.
• Provide: Modifies a purchase order choice, enabling options like reductions or pre-orders.

This lets you promote the identical product in a number of methods. New capabilities embody configuring rental intervals, organising pre-orders with outlined dates and reductions, and managing regional pricing and availability for particular person buy choices and gives. The idea of a default product value has been eliminated.

To make the most of these new options, it’s essential to improve to Play Billing Library 8.0 and use the brand new monetization.onetimeproducts service of the Play Developer API or the up to date Play Developer Console. You additionally must combine with the queryProductDetailsAsync API. Current SKUs may be migrated, however new options usually are not supported by the older querySkuDetailsAsync API or inappproducts service. Merchandise created by way of the Play Console UI shall be normalized throughout the new system. Pre-order performance is presently out there by means of an Early Entry Program.

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Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold7, Z Flip7, and Galaxy Watch8 sequence, providing you new alternatives to construct for adaptive experiences. The foldables run Android 16 with an enhanced desktop windowing expertise, and you’ll create adaptive apps for them with Compose Adaptive Layouts, Jetpack Navigation 3, and Window Measurement Lessons. The Galaxy Watch 8 sequence is the primary gadget to characteristic Put on OS 6.

Google Play’s Indie Video games Fund in Latin America returns for its fourth 12 months, committing one other $2 million to help ten indie sport studios within the area. This new spherical of funding will convey the entire funding in Latin American indie video games by means of this program to $8 million USD.

Chosen studios will obtain between $150,000 and $200,000, together with help from the Google Play staff. This system is open to indie sport builders who’ve already launched a sport on any platform (cellular, PC, or console).

Functions closed on July 31, 2025, with precedence given to submissions obtained by July 15, 2025.

Put on OS watch face improvement is altering to completely help the Watch Face Format. As of January 27, 2025, you can’t publish new AndroidX or Wearable Help Library (WSL) watch faces to the Play Retailer. By January 14, 2026, present legacy watch faces will not be installable from the Play Retailer, nor will you have the ability to replace them or proceed monetizing them. To proceed providing your watch faces, it’s essential to migrate them to the Watch Face Format and resubmit them to the Play Retailer by January 14, 2026. Watch Face Studio customers ought to resubmit utilizing model 1.8.7 or newer. The weblog put up lists sources which are out there to help with migration.

Amanotes, a cellular sport firm based by Invoice and Silver, has surpassed 3 billion downloads for its rhythm-based music video games like Magic Tiles 3. The corporate goals to make musical efficiency accessible by combining cellular gaming with rhythm-based faucets. Amanotes leveraged instruments resembling Firebase for A/B testing and Play Console for analytics and customized pricing for its international progress on Google Play.

At I/O ’25, Google Play launched a number of updates that will help you streamline subscriptions and maximize income.

1. Subscriptions with add-ons allow multi-product checkout, permitting you to promote subscription add-ons with base subscriptions in a single transaction and aligned fee schedule. You possibly can be taught extra about creating add-ons right here.
2. Showcasing advantages in additional locations throughout Play, together with the Subscriptions Middle, reminder emails, and through buy and cancellation processes, has lowered voluntary churn by 2%. You possibly can enter your subscription profit particulars in Play Console.
3. New grace interval and account maintain durations intention to lower involuntary churn. Now you can customise a grace interval of as much as 30 days and an account maintain interval of as much as 60 days, with the entire restoration interval not exceeding 60 days. Builders extending their decline restoration interval have seen a median 10% discount in involuntary churn for renewals. You possibly can alter these settings in Play Console.

Further initiatives embody prompting customers to arrange fee strategies, increasing fee choices and market availability, optimizing in-app transactions with AI, and utilizing cart abandonment reminders.

Play Video games Providers (PGS) is updating its options to reinforce sport discovery and participant retention on Google Play. You will need to migrate from PGS v1 to PGS v2 by Could 2026, as video games utilizing the v1 SDK will not be publishable or updatable after this date, and v1 APIs shall be totally deprecated by Q3 2028.

Key updates and options embody:

• Achievements: Now deeply built-in throughout the Play Retailer, achievements are discoverable by way of search and sport element pages, and may drive engagement with Play Factors. You need to configure at the very least 15 incremental achievements, with 5 achievable throughout the first two hours of gameplay. Bulk configuration is obtainable in Play Console.
• Promotional Content material: Viewers concentrating on capabilities have been enhanced. You should utilize the Play Grouping API to create customized segments primarily based on gameplay context for tailor-made re-engagement promotions.
• Signal-in: PGS gives seamless sign-in and progress syncing throughout Android units. The Recall API helps you handle hyperlinks between PGS and your in-game accounts.

Future developments embody AI-powered avatars that you could combine into participant profiles inside your sport.

Wonderful Seasun Video games is launching its motion capturing sport, Mecha BREAK, on Google Play Video games on PC as a part of its multiplatform PC and console launch.

The sport makes use of Google Play Video games on PC for its launch technique, together with pre-registration campaigns that attracted over 3.5 million gamers throughout beta. You possibly can entry the native PC program to obtain as much as 15% in further earnback, together with help for PC sport improvement, distribution, and progress. This help consists of managing PC builds, releases, and retailer listings by means of Play Console, and accessing PC-specific gross sales reviews.

The platform gives a safe infrastructure with instruments like Play Integrity API, providing malware safety and anti-cheat capabilities. Mecha BREAK itself delivers a high-fidelity PC expertise with a proprietary 3D engine, providing various fight kinds resembling 6v6 hero battles, 3v3 matches, and a PvPvE “Mashmak” extraction mode.

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Listed here are the highest 3 updates for Android developer productiveness from Google I/O 2025:

1. Gemini in Android Studio: Gemini-powered AI is now out there to simplify constructing and testing code, with options like “Journeys for Android Studio,” a “Model Improve Agent,” and “Agent Mode” for complicated duties. It might probably additionally generate Jetpack Compose previews and remodel UI code utilizing pure language.
2. New Jetpack Compose launch: The newest secure model consists of Navigation 3 for extra flexibility, a Materials 3 Expressive replace to reinforce person expertise, and new options like autofill help and auto-sizing textual content, together with efficiency enhancements.
3. Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) shared module template: A brand new template in Android Studio helps builders share enterprise logic between Android and iOS apps, decreasing improvement time. That is supported by up to date Jetpack libraries and new codelabs.

Google I/O ’25 introduced three key updates for AI on Android improvement.

1. Gemini Nano for on-device AI experiences: New ML Equipment GenAI APIs powered by Gemini Nano can be found for duties like textual content summarization, proofreading, and picture description straight on units.
2. Google AI Edge for customized fashions: The Google AI Edge platform now gives improved help for on-device {hardware} accelerators and a brand new AI Edge Portal for benchmarking. It’s also possible to handle customized mannequin downloads effectively with Play for On-Gadget AI, now in beta.
3. Firebase AI Logic for cloud AI: For superior generative AI use circumstances, Firebase AI Logic gives a simplified, safe technique to combine bigger fashions like Gemini Flash, Gemini Professional, and Imagen, together with help for conversational AI with Gemini Reside API and visible asset technology with Imagen.

Moreover, the open-source Androidify app demonstrates constructing AI-driven experiences with these new APIs, and extra examples can be found within the Android AI Pattern Catalog.

Ash and Aaron cowl the brand new capabilities for Widgets and Reside Updates.

Widgets now supply Canonical Layouts for sooner improvement and Generated Previews (enhanced in Look 1.2 for Android 15+) that show actual person knowledge, requiring cautious administration of reminiscence and charge limits.

For Reside Updates & Notifications, a brand new ProgressStyleTemplate streamlines progress indicators for time-sensitive, user-initiated journeys (e.g., supply, ride-share) — not for adverts or spam. Builders can programmatically decide if notifications meet Reside Replace standards and customise a brand new outstanding standing chip for fast person entry.

Google Play now permits multi-platform Android sport distribution from a single Android App Bundle, reaching billions of customers throughout telephones, tablets, foldables, and PCs. Google Play Video games on PC is nearing normal availability, providing computerized keyboard-to-touch translation for present video games and non-obligatory native mouse help (by way of a manifest flag) for an enhanced PC expertise.

Jetpack Navigation 3 is now in Alpha, providing a brand new state-based strategy particularly designed to align with Jetpack Compose’s declarative nature.

Key newsworthy factors for Android app builders:

• Decoupled Logic: It gives a robust separation between navigation logic and UI, enhancing testability and adaptability.
• State as Single Supply of Reality: Advocates to your app’s state (together with navigation) as the one supply of reality, transferring away from event-based navigation points.
• Developer-Owned Backstack: Builders now personal the backstack state, giving extra management and simplifying complicated eventualities like type-safety throughout modules and multi-pane layouts.
• Versatile Constructing Blocks: Gives constructing blocks that combine higher with Compose’s patterns, permitting a extra sturdy and developer-controlled navigation answer.

Builders are inspired to discover the Alpha and supply suggestions.

Compose Previews in Android Studio considerably speed up UI improvement by permitting you to check Jetpack Compose UI adjustments immediately with out full builds.

Key options embody:

Essential finest practices embody:

• Avoiding direct ViewModel instantiation in previews.
• Utilizing @PreviewParameter for environment friendly knowledge provision.
• Making a “sticker sheet” with a number of @Preview annotations for visible part documentation and sooner staff onboarding.

The Embedded Format Inspector in Android Studio is a vital device for debugging Jetpack Compose UIs, permitting you to examine format hierarchy. It’s accessed by way of the Operating Units Device Window whereas your app is operating.

Android 14 launched SDK Runtime, a brand new expertise enhancing privateness and safety by isolating third-party SDKs (referred to as Runtime-enabled SDKs or RE SDKs) in a safe sandbox. Apps/SDKs (referred to as Runtime-aware SDKs or RA SDKs) work together with these RE SDKs by way of mechanically generated “shims,” with backward compatibility offered by Jetpack.

For SDK builders, constructing an RE SDK requires important adjustments: a particular challenge construction utilizing Android SDK Bundles (ASB), new Gradle configurations (together with Privateness Sandbox plugins and specialised Jetpack dependencies), and declaring APIs with new annotations (@PrivacySandboxService, @PrivacySandboxInterface). Particular concerns apply for UI and launching actions, and a particular entry level should be carried out. This marks a elementary shift in how SDKs shall be constructed and built-in on Android.

Key Takeaways:

• Physique Sensor Permissions are Evolving: Beginning with Android 16, Google is changing broad physique sensor permissions with new, particular, privacy-focused ones (e.g., android.permission.well being.READ_HEART_RATE). Apps accessing delicate well being knowledge (coronary heart charge, oxygen, pores and skin temp) might want to adapt to those new permissions, requiring accepted, user-benefiting use circumstances.
• Blockchain/Crypto Apps — Nation-Particular Guidelines: A brand new Assist Middle article gives country-specific necessities for apps providing blockchain content material (crypto exchanges/wallets). Builders on this area ought to pay attention to potential location-specific types.
• AI-Generated Content material Finest Practices: New steering is obtainable on finest practices for apps that embody AI-generated content material, specializing in defending customers and apps.
• Content material Rankings & Advertisements: Content material rankings solely mirror your app’s inside content material, not adverts. Guarantee advert content material displayed inside your app will not be considerably extra mature than your app’s content material ranking.
• Upcoming Deadlines: Bear in mind to assessment 2025 deadlines for varied insurance policies, together with Picture/Video Permissions, Strains of Credit score, Information/Magazines, and Well being Content material & Providers.

Google Play has up to date its coverage for private mortgage apps concentrating on Pakistan: Apps selling short-term private loans (reimbursement inside 60 days or much less) are actually usually prohibited. When you have such apps, ensure that to assessment your compliance.

For Android apps coping with blockchain content material (like crypto exchanges or software program wallets), Google Play now gives a Blockchain-based Content material Coverage Assist Middle. This useful resource particulars country-specific compliance necessities, together with potential location-specific types. In case your app targets a location not explicitly listed, you should declare it as a crypto change or software program pockets within the Monetary Options declaration. See goo.gle/blockchain-policy for full particulars.

Dealing with declining cellular gaming progress in 2023, Google Play highlights ‘style growth’ as an important technique for builders. This entails integrating gameplay, monetization, or aesthetics throughout genres to accumulate broader audiences, deepen engagement, and enhance monetization (e.g., 4X video games including informal mini-games). You need to concentrate on early UA testing, understanding participant motivations, guaranteeing seamless integration, and using Play Console instruments like retailer itemizing experiments and staged rollouts for efficient iteration.

Google’s Android staff highlights Vulkan and the Adaptive Efficiency Framework (ADPF) as essential for contemporary Android sport improvement. Vulkan is a complicated graphics API providing elevated effectivity and entry to superior GPU options, enabling you to maximise your video games’ potential on modern {hardware}.

Right here’s a abstract of the current AndroidX adjustments:

Vital Bug Fixes & Stability Enhancements:

Paging (3.4.0-alpha01): A number of crucial bugs affecting UI stability and knowledge loading have been fastened:

1. Resolved IndexOutOfBoundsException when scrolling whereas updating RecyclerView.
2. Fastened points stopping extra masses from triggering when refreshing whereas scrolling.
3. Addressed crashes occurring when scrolling whereas refreshing Paging objects.

Room (2.8.0-alpha01): Fastened a impasse that might sometimes happen when utilizing suspending transactions with the AndroidSQLiteDriver.

Important New Options & API Enhancements:

WebKit (1.15.0-alpha01): Main enhancements for WebView management:

1. HTTP Header Management: A brand new API (Profile.setOriginMatchedHeader) to set HTTP header name-value pairs on requests to particular origins inside WebViews and repair staff.
2. Improved Cookie Dealing with: Builders can now embody Cookie headers in WebResourceRequest.getRequestHeaders() and course of Set-Cookie values from WebResourceResponseCompat.setCookies inside shouldInterceptRequest callbacks. This significantly improves management over cookie administration in intercepted WebView requests.
3. Renderer Heat-up: An experimental API to heat up the WebView renderer course of for a Profile, enhancing efficiency for complicated WebView lifecycles.

Room (2.8.0-alpha01): Launched androidx.room:room-sqlite-wrapper and the RoomDatabase.getSupportWrapper() extension perform. This permits builders adopting SQLiteDriver to nonetheless acquire a SupportSQLiteDatabase wrapper, easing incremental migration for codebases which have in depth SupportSQLite API usages.

Expanded Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) Help (Medium Precedence, Excessive for KMP Builders):

Put on OS Particular Updates (Medium Precedence, Excessive for Put on Builders):

Different Notable Modifications (Decrease Precedence for normal app improvement, however vital for particular use circumstances):

• SQLite (2.6.0-alpha01): Provides an API (SQLiteConnection.hasActiveTransaction()) to verify if a SQLiteConnection has an energetic transaction, which may support in managing complicated transaction logic.
• Take a look at UI Automator (1.0.0-alpha01): A brand new uiautomator-shell library permits executing shell instructions as a shell person, backporting UiAutomation#executeShellCommandRwe (from API 34) for testing and instrumentation functions.

The Android Builders Backstage podcast is again with two extra episodes.

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AI-powered Gemini options in Android Studio have considerably developed, providing complete developer help from design to upkeep. Key developments embody clever code completion, design device integrations (e.g., composable previews), and unit take a look at state of affairs technology.

Newsworthy options:

• Model Improve Assistant: Automates dependency updates and fixes compilation errors, decreasing developer “toil.”
• Agent Mode (public preview): Permits Gemini to straight modify code throughout the IDE primarily based on directions, with developer approval required for adjustments.
• Privateness: Gemini operates throughout the IDE, retaining code non-public with out exterior transmission for mannequin coaching, with enhanced privateness choices for companies.

Android Studio now automates app knowledge backup and restore testing, eliminating cumbersome guide ADB instructions. This considerably simplifies validating your app’s knowledge persistence (settings, sport states, permissions) throughout units and emulators. Builders can configure backup scope by way of the manifest, differentiating between cloud (25MB) and device-to-device (1–2GB) transfers. Customization of backup descriptors is feasible for complicated eventualities, although delicate knowledge is excluded for safety. This new tooling streamlines testing for dependable knowledge switch and a seamless person expertise.

That’s it for this version of Now in Android, together with the Android platform Canary Channel, the primary launch of Agentic AI in Android Studio, Play updates together with 16 KB Web page Measurement necessities and different coverage adjustments, new capabilities round one-time purchases, Play Video games Providers v2, and Google Play Video games on PC, I/O recaps on AI and dev productiveness, subsequent gen Samsung units operating Android 16, and Compose ideas.

Verify again quickly to your subsequent replace from the Android developer universe!