To be in the Apps Experience Program, apps titles must meet the following requirements. These requirements will be updated on a regular cadence with reasonable developer notice.
a. Developers must publish titles on all required form factors with exemplary quality (as defined by the requirements below). Required formfactors will vary based on the app’s category, which will be published as part of the program requirements, where the form factor’s constraints would meaningfully degrade a quality experience on that form factor (e.g., video playback on a watch), and except on particular devices where there is not a viable technical solution to provide quality experience due to system constraints(e.g. memory, performance, storage, input, or operating system version).When an app title in the Apps Experience program is published on one of these additional form factors the service fee rate caps in Section 9 will apply to that app title on that form factor.
i. Stability: Frame rate stability, Crash rate, ANR, memory usage thresholds, jank thresholds
ii. Quality: Utilize Jetpack Compose (or an equivalently capable alternative) to deliver a high quality app experience across all form factors (providing the same capabilities as, for example, Adaptive design, Edge to Edge rendering, Dynamic coloring & Theming, Baseline Profiles)
iii. If supporting another comparable non-Android platform’s design system, must also integrate Android’s equivalent (e.g. Material UX, System Emoji, Physics-based motion)
iv. Maintain latest Android platform standards (e.g 16kb, Predictive Back Nav, App Functions)
v. New titles need to be available on the following form factors: Mobile & Large Screen (Tablet, Android PC), XR (with titles running in a 2D window on the XR device), TV, Wear (with at least companion app support), and Auto, no later than their availability on other comparable non-Android platforms or such titles will not be eligible for the program benefits until 6mo after they fulfill all other program requirements across all form factors
vi. Implement category specific quality requirements as defined by the program(e.g CameraX and Photo Picker integration for social apps, Cast for M&E etc.)
b. Developers must offer a consistent apps experience by meeting experiential standards across apps, including:
i. For apps that support user sign in, Entitlement and Sign in restoration (e.g. offer Sign in with Google, Restore Credentials API). For the avoidance of doubt, any such requirements would not preclude use of other identification systems.
ii. Engage SDK integration (for supported categories)
iii. Maintain feature parity between Android and other comparable non-Android platforms within 3 weeks of the feature being available on any comparable platform, except if the feature is not feasible on the Android platform. For the avoidance of doubt, lack of feature parity prior to entry in the program does not prevent eligibility for the program.
iv. Support Play’s Content discovery experiences by providing metadata and assets as required for the content vertical (e.g Comics to Comics hub in Play, Drama Shorts). Specification to be defined per vertical and shall not require developer to bear any substantial costs
Read the full article here
