The new recommendations for preview assets on Google Play

[Mobile Visuals]

I want to discuss the new recommendations for screenshots, short description and other preview assets on Google Play! I am especially interested in finding out exactly what the guidelines for "highly recommended" means. I refer to what is described here:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9866151

I have asked Google developer support about this, but they replied that they don't have any support team for policy compliance. The apps that fulfill the requirements for "highly recommended" will be recommended and promoted throughout Google Play. So those are the only apps, which have any chance of being popular. That is why it is so important to know what "highly recommended" means. I have come to my own conclusions, which I can share. So I am searching for other developers, who want to discuss this.

 

[codesplice]

From reviewing that page, it just sounds like your app listing absolutely must meet the criteria which are spelled out as Required. Also meeting the criteria labeled as Highly Recommended may help to further improve the discoverability of your app.

So the Short description must be at least 80 characters in length, but it should also:

• Summarize the core function of your app
• Avoid duplication/redundancy in its messaging
• Reflect the latest state of the app
• Not include language which isn't related to the function of your app
• Be localized as appropriate
• Be correctly formatted
• Not use capitalization for emphasis

The Required criteria are the bare minimum you should do in order to have a listing published in the Google Play Store; the Highly Recommended criteria are additional steps you should take to make the listing more attractive to potential users.

 

[Mobile Visuals]

Yes, that is the difference between "required" and "highly recommended". But some things on "highly recommended" seems unclear or up for interpretation.

One of my conclusions on what the requirements for "highly recommended" means is that Google now puts more emphasis on localization. The localization has to be consistent. If the short description is translated, then the long description and any text in the screenshots also have to be translated. All translation have to be made by professional translators, it is not enough to use Google Translate. If any of the translation is not professional, it is better to remove the whole translation.

I had translations for 4 apps. But the long descriptions for the apps are so long, so I did not have the resources to make a professional translation of the whole texts. Parts of them were translated with Google Translate. I noticed big decreases in the downloads, because the apps were no longer "highly recommended". So now I have removed all the translations for these 4 apps. One of these apps are now back to its former high downloads and is "highly recommended" again. It seems like some of the other apps are also increasing downloads again.

"Highly recommended" for the short description says "Localize your description as appropriate for different markets and languages." At first I thought that this meant that the short description has to be localized for the app to be "highly recommended". Now I think that it means that as I mentioned before, if any preview asset is localized, then all other preview assets have to be localized.

I am however not certain about the text about avoiding Call-to-actions in the preview assets. I have removed all text in my screenshots to be on the safe side. The requirements for "highly recommended" says ”Avoid adding any form of call-to-action, for example, Download now, Install now, Play now, or Try now.” This is mentioned for both the short description and the screenshots. I wonder what is counted as Call-to-actions here. “Download now" is an obvious Call-to-action, but are phrases like "Create your own visualizer" and "Visualize music from any player" also counted as Call-to-actions? These are all counted as Call-to-actions according to Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_to_action_(marketing)

 

[codesplice]

I think that adding text to the screenshots to describe what's being shown / advertise the actual capabilities of the app should be absolutely fine. "Hey you can do this thing in this app" is different from "download this app now".

But you're right, though. It does seem like a lot of the highly recommended items are a bit open to interpretation.

 

[Mobile Visuals]

I found the answer to my question. Phrases like "Create your own visualizer" and "Visualize music from any player" are not defined as Call-to-actions here. It is only the obvious Call-to-actions like "Download now" and "Install now", which are not recommended. I got the answer to all my questions in a course from the Play Academy, called "Google Play Store Listing certificate study guide".

The information there is much clearer and detailed than in the official document:
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9866151

The only thing I wonder now is if premium features can be mentioned in taglines for screenshots. If microphone visualization is only available in the premium version, is it then OK to have a tagline like "Visualize from the microphone"? Or should the tagline also mention that this is only available in the premium version? If so, the tagline would probably be too long according to Google's recommendations, since the text should not be too small and the text should not occupy more than 20% of the screenshot.