Posted by Robbie McLachlan – Developer Marketing

In our latest #WeArePlay stories, we meet the founders building apps and games that power entrepreneurs and business owners around the world. From digitizing finances for micro-merchants in Bogotá to modernizing barbershops in New York, they are solving real-world challenges with intuitive apps.

Here are a few of our favorites:

Lluís and Man Hei’s app Treinta saves microbusiness owners 30 minutes a day by digitizing their sales, inventory, and cash flow.

After meeting at university, Lluís and Man Hei reunited to launch Treinta, an app inspired by Lluís’ experience with small businesses across Latin America. Named after the Spanish word for ’30,’ it helps microbusiness owners save at least 30 minutes a day by digitizing tasks like inventory, sales tracking, and cash flow management. With a recent expansion into the U.S. and upcoming AI tools, they are on track to reach their goal of 100,000 premium members by 2026.

Ying, Yong, Steve, and Oswald’s app Glints uses AI-powered recommendations to make hiring talent quick and easy.

High school friends Ying, Yong, Steve, and Oswald bonded over a shared vision to use technology for good, which led them to create Glints. What began as an internship portal in Singapore evolved into a dynamic hiring app after they saw an opportunity to tackle underemployment among young people in Indonesia. The app streamlines the job search with AI-powered recommendations and direct chat features, creating new career opportunities and helping companies find top talent. Their goal is to expand into more cities and become Indonesia’s leading career app.

Dave and Songe’s app SQUIRE helps barbers manage and grow their business with an all-in-one platform.

Former lawyer Songe and finance expert Dave saw an opportunity to modernize the cash-reliant barbershop industry. With no prior experience, they took over a struggling Manhattan barbershop while developing SQUIRE. The app, which initially focused on appointment scheduling and digital payments, has since evolved into a complete management platform with Point of Sale, inventory tracking, and analytics — helping barbers run their businesses more efficiently. Now, they’re adding more customization options and plan to expand SQUIRE’s capabilities to continue elevating the modern barbershop experience.

Discover other inspiring app and game founders featured in #WeArePlay.

Posted by Robbie McLachlan – Developer Marketing

In our latest #WeArePlay film, which celebrates the people behind apps and games on Google Play, we meet Hugo, the founder of Maliyo Games. He is on a mission to put African stories and talent on the global gaming map by creating vibrant games inspired by local life and culture. Discover how he is building not just games, but an entire ecosystem for game development on the continent.

You went from a career in finance to becoming a pioneer in Africa’s games industry. What inspired that leap?

I’ve always had a passion for economics and business, but after some years in finance, I wanted to move back to Nigeria and help build something new. I noticed a problem on our continent: we were huge consumers of digital content but not creators. Seeing the passion for our local music and film, I knew we could bring that same energy to gaming. My mission became clear: to shift us from being ‘net consumers’ to ‘net creators,’ using games as a medium to take our unique stories and culture to the world.

Your games are bursting with African culture. Why is it so important to you to tell these specific stories?

Because these are our stories to tell! I think of us as storytellers first, and games are our medium. We create games based on shared experiences from our childhoods, we feature things everyone can relate to like our love for property development and redesign in Safari City.

When people in Africa play our games, the reaction is pure joy and surprise. They say, “I can’t believe you guys built this!” because they see themselves and their lives reflected. It’s not just about enjoyment; it’s about a deeper, emotional connection.

Building a game studio where there was no established industry must have been tough. How did you tackle the challenge of finding and nurturing talent on the continent?

It was definitely hard. When we started in 2012, the biggest challenge wasn’t just finding skills, but finding the right mindset; so we started GameUp Africa, a free, pan-African training program. It was a longer road, for sure, but it has transformed everything. Today, 90% of our team came through that program. We’re now a team of about 30 people from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and more. Seeing these young, brilliant creators, some as young as 17, building their careers with us is the most satisfying part of what I do.

How has Google Play helped you achieve global reach from your base in Lagos?

For us, Google Play was a no-brainer. Africa is primarily an Android market, so it’s our primary distribution platform to reach our audience here and in the diaspora. But it’s more than just a storefront; it’s the entire infrastructure. We use the full suite of tools: Firebase’s analytics give us incredible insights into player behaviour, Google AdMob helps us monetize, and the testing tools let us experiment with new features. Google Play makes it possible for a studio in Lagos to build, scale, and operate as a truly global company without having to build that foundation ourselves.

What is next for Maliyo Games?

Now, our sights are set on growth. The next big goal is to get one of our games to one million monthly active users, as we build towards our long-term ambition of reaching an engaged community of 500 million by 2030.

Discover other inspiring app and game founders featured in #WeArePlay.

Posted by Meghan Mehta – Developer Relations Engineer and Nick Butcher – Product Manager

Today, the Jetpack Compose August ‘25 release is stable. This release contains version 1.9 of core compose modules (see the full BOM mapping), introducing new APIs for rendering shadows, 2D scrolling, rich styling of text transformations, improved list performance, and more!

To use today’s release, upgrade your Compose BOM version to 2025.08.00:

implementation(platform("androidx.compose:compose-bom:2025.08.00"))

Shadows

We’re happy to introduce two highly requested modifiers: Modifier.dropShadow() and Modifier.innerShadow() allowing you to render box-shadow effects (compared to the existing Modifier.shadow() which renders elevation based shadows based on a lighting model).

Modifier.dropShadow()

The dropShadow() modifier draws a shadow behind your content. You can add it to your composable chain and specify the radius, color, and spread. Remember, content that should appear on top of the shadow (like a background) should be drawn after the dropShadow() modifier.

@Composable
@Preview(showBackground = true)
fun SimpleDropShadowUsage() {
    val pinkColor = Color(0xFFe91e63)
    val purpleColor = Color(0xFF9c27b0)
    Box(Modifier.fillMaxSize()) {
        Box(
            Modifier
                .size(200.dp)
                .align(Alignment.Center)
                .dropShadow(
                    RoundedCornerShape(20.dp),
                    dropShadow = DropShadow(
                        15.dp,
                        color = pinkColor,
                        spread = 10.dp,
                        alpha = 0.5f
                    )
                )
                .background(
                    purpleColor,
                    shape = RoundedCornerShape(20.dp)
                )
        )
    }
}

Modifier.innerShadow()

The Modifier.innerShadow() draws shadows on the inset of the provided shape:

@Composable
@Preview(showBackground = true)
fun SimpleInnerShadowUsage() {
    val pinkColor = Color(0xFFe91e63)
    val purpleColor = Color(0xFF9c27b0)
    Box(Modifier.fillMaxSize()) {
        Box(
            Modifier
                .size(200.dp)
                .align(Alignment.Center)
                .background(
                    purpleColor,
                    shape = RoundedCornerShape(20.dp)
                )
                .innerShadow(
                    RoundedCornerShape(20.dp),
                    innerShadow = InnerShadow(
                        15.dp,
                        color = Color.Black,
                        spread = 10.dp,
                        alpha = 0.5f
                    )
                )
        )
    }
}

The order for inner shadows is very important. The inner shadow draws on top of the content, so for the example above, we needed to move the inner shadow modifier after the background modifier. We’d need to do something similar when using it on top of something like an Image. In this example, we’ve placed a separate Box to render the shadow in the layer above the image:

@Composable
@Preview(showBackground = true)
fun PhotoInnerShadowExample() {
    Box(Modifier.fillMaxSize()) {
        val shape = RoundedCornerShape(20.dp)
        Box(
            Modifier
                .size(200.dp)
                .align(Alignment.Center)
        ) {
            Image(
                painter = painterResource(id = R.drawable.cape_town),
                contentDescription = "Image with Inner Shadow",
                contentScale = ContentScale.Crop,
                modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize()
                    .clip(shape)
            )
            Box(
                modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize()
                    .innerShadow(
                        shape,
                        innerShadow = InnerShadow(15.dp,
                            spread = 15.dp)
                    )
            )
        }
    }
}

New Visibility modifiers

Compose UI 1.8 introduced onLayoutRectChanged, a new performant way to track the location of elements on screen. We’re building on top of this API to support common use cases by introducing onVisibilityChanged and onFirstVisible. These APIs accept optional parameters for the minimum fraction or amount of time the item has been visible for before invoking your action.

Use onVisibilityChanged for UI changes or side effects that should happen based on visibility, like automatically playing and pausing videos or starting an animation:

LazyColumn {
  items(feedData) { video ->
    VideoRow(
        video,
        Modifier.onVisibilityChanged(minDurationMs = 500, minFractionVisible = 1f) {
          visible ->
            if (visible) video.play() else video.pause()
          },
    )
  }
}

Use onFirstVisible for use cases when you wish to react to an element first becoming visible on screen for example to log impressions:

LazyColumn {
    items(100) {
        Box(
            Modifier
                // Log impressions when item has been visible for 500ms
                .onFirstVisible(minDurationMs = 500) { /* log impression */ }
                .clip(RoundedCornerShape(16.dp))
                .drawBehind { drawRect(backgroundColor) }
                .fillMaxWidth()
                .height(100.dp)
        )
    }
}

Rich styling in OutputTransformation

BasicTextField now supports applying styles like color and font weight from within an OutputTransformation.

The new TextFieldBuffer.addStyle() methods let you apply a SpanStyle or ParagraphStyle to change the appearance of text, without changing the underlying TextFieldState. This is useful for visually formatting input, like phone numbers or credit cards. This method can only be called inside an OutputTransformation.

// Format a phone number and color the punctuation
val phoneTransformation = OutputTransformation {
    // 1234567890 -> (123) 456-7890
    if (length == 10) {
        insert(0, "(")
        insert(4, ") ")
        insert(9, "-")

        // Color the added punctuation
        val gray = Color(0xFF666666)
        addStyle(SpanStyle(color = gray), 0, 1)
        addStyle(SpanStyle(color = gray), 4, 5)
        addStyle(SpanStyle(color = gray), 9, 10)
    }
}

BasicTextField(
    state = myTextFieldState,
    outputTransformation = phoneTransformation
)

LazyLayout

The building blocks of LazyLayout are all now stable! Check out LazyLayoutMeasurePolicy, LazyLayoutItemProvider, and LazyLayoutPrefetchState to build your own Lazy components.

Prefetch Improvements

There are now significant scroll performance improvements in Lazy List and Lazy Grid with the introduction of new prefetch behavior. You can now define a LazyLayoutCacheWindow to prefetch more content. By default, only one item is composed ahead of time in the direction of scrolling, and after something scrolls off screen it is discarded. You can now customize the amount of items ahead to prefetch and behind to retain through a fraction of the viewport or dp size. When you opt into using LazyLayoutCacheWindow, items begin prefetching in the ahead area straight away.

The configuration entry point for this is on LazyListState, which takes in the cache window size:

@OptIn(ExperimentalFoundationApi::class)
@Composable
private fun LazyColumnCacheWindowDemo() {
    // Prefetch items 150.dp ahead and retain items 100.dp behind the visible viewport
    val dpCacheWindow = LazyLayoutCacheWindow(ahead = 150.dp, behind = 100.dp)
    // Alternatively, prefetch/retain items as a fraction of the list size
    // val fractionCacheWindow = LazyLayoutCacheWindow(aheadFraction = 1f, behindFraction = 0.5f)
    val state = rememberLazyListState(cacheWindow = dpCacheWindow)
    LazyColumn(state = state) {
        items(1000) { Text(text = "$it", fontSize = 80.sp) }
    }
}

Note: Prefetch composes more items than are currently visible — the new cache window API will likely increase prefetching. This means that item’s LaunchedEffects and DisposableEffects may run earlier – do not use this as a signal for visibility e.g. for impression tracking. Instead, we recommend using the new onFirstVisible and onVisibilityChanged APIs. Even if you’re not manually customizing LazyLayoutCacheWindow now, avoid using composition effects as a signal of content visibility, as this new prefetch mechanism will be enabled by default in a future release.

Scroll

2D Scroll APIs

Following the release of Draggable2D, Scrollable2D is now available, bringing two-dimensional scrolling to Compose. While the existing Scrollable modifier handles single-orientation scrolling, Scrollable2D enables both scrolling and flinging in 2D. This allows you to create more complex layouts that move in all directions, such as spreadsheets or image viewers. Nested scrolling is also supported, accommodating 2D scenarios.

val offset = remember { mutableStateOf(Offset.Zero) }
Box(
    Modifier.size(150.dp)
        .scrollable2D(
            state =
                rememberScrollable2DState { delta ->
                    offset.value = offset.value + delta // update the state
                    delta // indicate that we consumed all the pixels available
                }
        )
        .background(Color.LightGray),
    contentAlignment = Alignment.Center,
) {
    Text(
        "X=${offset.value.x.roundToInt()} Y=${offset.value.y.roundToInt()}",
        style = TextStyle(fontSize = 32.sp),
    )
}

Scroll Interop Improvements

There are bug fixes and new features to improve scroll and nested scroll interop with Views, including the following:

• You can now use ViewTreeObserver onScrollChangeListeners to listen to Compose scroll events.
• Fixed the dispatching of incorrect velocities during fling animations between Compose and Views.
• Compose now correctly invokes the View’s nested scroll callbacks in the appropriate order.
• Nested scrolling is respected in the case of NestedScrollView inside an AndroidView.

Improve crash analysis by adding source info to stack traces

We have heard from you that it can be hard to debug Compose crashes when your own code does not appear in the stack trace. To address this we’re providing a new, opt-in API to provide richer crash location details, including composable names and locations enabling you to:

• Efficiently identify and resolve crash sources.
• More easily isolate crashes for reproducible samples.
• Investigate crashes that previously only showed internal stack frames.

Note that we do not recommend using this API in release builds due to the performance impact of collecting this extra information, nor does it work in minified apks.

To enable this feature, add the line below to the application entry point. Ideally, this configuration should be performed before any compositions are created to ensure that the stack trace information is collected:

class App : Application() {
   override fun onCreate() {
        // Enable only for debug flavor to avoid perf regressions in release
        Composer.setDiagnosticStackTraceEnabled(BuildConfig.DEBUG)
   }
}

New annotations and Lint checks

We are introducing a new runtime-annotation library that exposes annotations used by the compiler and tooling (such as lint checks). This allows non-Compose modules to use these annotations without a dependency on the Compose runtime library. The @Stable, @Immutable, and @StableMarker annotations have moved to runtime-annotation, allowing you to annotate classes and functions that do not depend on Compose.

Additionally, we have added two new annotations and corresponding lint checks:

• @RememberInComposition: An annotation that can mark constructors, functions, and property getters, to indicate that they must not be called directly inside composition without being remembered. Errors will be raised by a corresponding lint check.
• @FrequentlyChangingValue: An annotation that can mark functions, and property getters, to indicate that they should not be called directly inside composition, as this may cause frequent recompositions (for example, marking scroll position values and animating values). Warnings are provided by a corresponding lint check.

Additional updates

• To simplify compatibility and improve stability for lint check support, Compose now requires Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) / Lint version 8.8.2 or higher. Check out this new documentation page to learn more.
• Two new APIs have been added for context menus:
• Modifier.appendTextContextMenuComponents(): Adds new items into the context menu.
• Modifier.filterTextContextMenuComponents(): Removes items from the context menu.

Get started

We appreciate all bug reports and feature requests submitted to our issue tracker. Your feedback allows us to build the APIs you need in your apps. Happy composing!

Posted by Robbie McLachlan, Developer Marketing

How do you tackle the planet’s biggest sustainability and environmental challenges? For 10 new founders we’re spotlighting in #WeArePlay, it starts with coding. Their apps and games are helping to build a healthier planet by developing career paths for aspiring environmentalists, preserving indigenous knowledge, and turning nature education into an adventure for all.

Here are a few of our favourites:

Ariane, Flávia, Andréia, and Mayla’s game BoRa turns a simple park visit into an immersive, gamified adventure.

Passionate about nature, co-founders Mayla, Flávia, Andréia, and Ariane met while researching environmental education. They wanted to foster more meaningful connections between people and Brazil’s national parks. Their app, BoRa – Iguaçu National Park, transforms a visit into an immersive experience using interactive storytelling, gamified trails, and accessibility features like sign language, helping everyone connect more deeply with the natural world.

Louis and Justin’s app, CyberTracker, turns the ancient knowledge of indigenous trackers into vital scientific data for modern conservation.

Louis knew that animal tracking was a science, but the expert knowledge of many indigenous trackers couldn’t be recorded because they were unable to read or write. He partnered with Justin to create CyberTracker to solve this. Their app uses a simple icon-based interface, enabling non-literate trackers to record vital biodiversity data. This innovation preserves invaluable knowledge and supports conservation efforts worldwide.

Bharati and Saurabh’s app, Earth5R, turns a passion for the planet into real-world experience and careers in the green economy.

After a life-changing cycling trip around the world, Saurabh was inspired by sustainable practices he saw in different communities. He and his wife, Bharati, brought those lessons home to Mumbai and launched Earth5R. Their app provides environmental education and career development, connecting people to internships and hands-on projects. By providing the skills and experience needed for the green economy, they’re building the next generation of environmental leaders.

Discover more #WeArePlay stories from founders across the globe.

Posted by Robbie McLachlan, Developer Marketing

They saw a problem and built the answer. Meet 20 #WeArePlay founders from across the U.S. who started their entrepreneurial journey with a question like: what if reading was no longer a barrier for anyone? What if an app could connect neighbors to fight local hunger? What if fitness or self-care could feel as engaging as playing a game?

These new stories showcase how innovation often starts with finding the answer to a personal problem. Here are just a few of our favorites:

Cliff’s app Speechify makes the written word accessible to all

Growing up with dyslexia, Cliff always wished he could enjoy books but found reading them challenging. After moving to the U.S., the then college student turned that personal challenge into a solution for millions. His app, Speechify, empowers people by turning any text—from PDFs to web pages—into audio. By making the written word accessible to all, Cliff’s innovation gives students, professionals, and auditory learners a new kind of independence.

Jenny’s game Run Legends turns everyday fitness into a social adventure

As a teen, Jenny funded her computer science studies by teaching herself to code and publishing over 100 games. A passionate cross-country runner, she wanted to combine her love for gaming and fitness to make exercise feel more like an adventure. The result is Run Legends, a multiplayer RPG where players battle monsters by moving in real life. Jenny’s on a mission to blend all types of exercise with playful storytelling, turning everyday fitness into a fun, social, and heroic quest.

Nino and Stephanie’s app Finch makes self-care a rewarding daily habit

As engineers, Nino and Stephanie knew the power of technology but found the world of self-care apps overwhelming. Inspired by their own mental health journeys and a gamified app Stephanie built in college, they created Finch. The app introduces a fresh take on the virtual pet: by completing small, positive actions for yourself, like journaling or practicing breathing exercises, you care for your digital companion. With over 10 million downloads, Finch has helped people around the world build healthier habits. With seasonal events every month and growing personalization, the app continues to evolve to make self-care more fun and rewarding.

John’s app The HungreeApp connects communities to fight hunger

John began coding as a nine-year-old in Nigeria, sometimes with just a pen and paper. After moving to the U.S., he was struck by how much food from events was wasted while people nearby went hungry. That spark led him to create The HungreeApp, a platform that connects communities with free, surplus food from businesses and restaurants. John’s ingenuity turns waste into opportunity, creating a more connected and resourceful nation, one meal at a time.

Anthony’s game studio Tech Tree Games turns a passion for idle games into cosmic adventures for aspiring tycoons

While working as a chemical engineer, Anthony dreamed of creating an idle game like the ones he loved to play, leading him to teach himself how to code from scratch. This passion project turned into his studio Tech Tree Games and the hit title Idle Planet Miner, where players grow a space mining empire filled with mystical planets and alluring gems. After releasing a 2.0 update with enhanced visuals for the game, Anthony is back in prototyping mode with new titles in the pipeline.

Discover more #WeArePlay stories from the US and stories from across the globe.

Posted by Robbie McLachlan – Developer Marketing

In our latest #WeArePlay film, which celebrates the people behind apps and games on Google Play, we meet Bill and Silver – the duo behind Amanotes. Their game company has reached over 3 billion downloads with their mission ‘everyone can music’. Their titles, including the global hit Magic Tiles 3, turn playing musical instruments into a fun, easy, and interactive experience, with no musical background needed. Discover how Amanotes blends creativity and technology to bring joy and connection to billions of players around the world.

What inspired you to create Amanotes?

Bill: It all began with a question I’d pursued for over 20 years – how can technology make music even more beautiful? I grew up in a musical family, surrounded by instruments, but I also loved building things with tech. Amanotes became the space where I could bring those two passions together.

Silver: Honestly, I wasn’t planning to start a company. I had just finished studying entrepreneurship and was looking to join a startup, not launch one. I dropped a message in an online group saying I wanted to find a team to work with, and Bill reached out. We met for coffee, talked for about an hour, and by the end, we just said, why not give it a shot? That one meeting turned into ten years of building Amanotes.

Do you remember the first time you realized your game was more than just a game and that it could change someone’s life?

Silver: There’s one moment I’ll never forget. A woman in the U.S. left a review saying she used to be a pianist, but after an accident, she lost use of some of her fingers and couldn’t play anymore. Then she found Magic Tiles. She said the game gave her that feeling of playing again—even without full movement. That’s when it hit me. We weren’t just building a game. We were helping people reconnect with something they thought they’d lost.

How has Google Play helped your journey?

Silver: Google Play has been a huge part of our story. It was actually the first platform we ever published on. The audience was global from day one, which gave us the reach we needed to grow fast. We made great use of tools such as Firebase for A/B testing. We also relied on the Play Console for analytics and set custom pricing by country. Without Google Play, Amanotes wouldn’t be where it is today.

What’s next for Amanotes?

Silver: Music will always be the soul of what we do, but now we’re building games with more depth. We want to go beyond just tapping to songs. We’re adding stories, challenges, and richer gameplay on top of the music. We’ve got a whole lineup of new games in the works. Each one is a chance to push the boundaries of what music games can be.

Discover other inspiring app and game founders featured in #WeArePlay.

Posted by Laura Nechita – Product Manager, Google Play and Rejane França – Group Product Manager, Google Play

Starting today, Google Play is revamping the way developers can manage one time products, providing greater flexibility and new ways to sell. Play has continually enhanced the ways developers can reach buyers by helping you to diversify the way you can sell products.

Starting in 2022, we created more flexibility for subscriptions and a new Console interface. And now, we are bringing the same flexibility to one-time products, aligning the taxonomy for our one-time products. Previously known as in-app products, one-time product purchases are a vital way for developers to monetize on Google Play. As this business model continues to evolve, we’ve heard from many of you that you need more flexibility and less complexity in how you offer these digital products.

To address these needs, we’re launching new capabilities and a new way of thinking about your products that can help you grow your business. At its core, we’ve separated what the product is from how you sell it. For each one-time product, you can now configure multiple purchase options and offers. This allows you to sell the same product in multiple ways, reducing operational costs by removing the need to create and manage an ever-increasing number of catalog items.

You might have already noticed some changes as we introduce this new model, which provides a more structured way to define and manage your one-time product offerings.

Introducing the new model

We’re introducing a new three-level hierarchy for defining and managing one-time products. This new structure builds upon concepts already familiar from our subscription model and aligns the taxonomy for all of your in-app product offerings on Play.

• One-time product: This object defines what the user is buying. Think of it as the core item in your catalog, such as a “Diamond sword”, “Coins” or “No ads”.
• Purchase option: This defines how the entitlement is granted to the user, its price, and where the product will be available. A single one-time product can have multiple purchase options representing different ways to acquire it, such as buying it or renting it for a set period of time. Purchase options now have two distinct types: buy and rent.
• Offer: Offers further modify a purchase option and can be used to model discounts or pre-orders. A single purchase option can have multiple offers associated with it.

This allows for a more organized and efficient way to manage your catalog. For instance, you can have one “Diamond sword” product and offer it with a “Buy” purchase option in the US for $10 and a “Rent” purchase option in the UK for £5. This new taxonomy will also allow Play to better understand what the catalogue means, helping developers to further amplify their impact in Play surfaces.

More flexibility to reach more users

The new model unlocks significant flexibility to help you reach a wider audience and cater to different user preferences.

• Sell in multiple ways: Once you’ve migrated to PBL 8, you can set up different ways of selling the same product. This reduces the complexity of managing numerous individual products for slightly different scenarios.
• Introducing rentals: We’re introducing the ability to configure items that are sold as rentals. Users have access to the item for a set duration of time. You can define the rental period, which is the amount of time a user has the entitlement after completing the purchase, and an optional expiration period, which is the time after starting consumption before the entitlement is revoked.
• Pre-order capabilities: You can now set up one-time products to be bought before their release through pre-order offers. You can configure the start date, end date, and the release date for these offers, and even include a discount. Users who pre-order agree to pay on the release date unless they cancel beforehand.
• No default price: we will remove the concept of default price for a product. Now you can set and manage the prices in bulk or individually for each region.
• Regional pricing and availability: Price changes can now be applied to purchase options and offers, allowing you to set different prices in different regions. Furthermore, you can also configure the regional availability for both purchase options and offers. This functionality is available for paid apps in addition to one-time products.
• Offers for promotions: Leverage offers to create various promotions, such as discounts on your base purchase price or special conditions for early access through pre-orders.

To use these new features you first need to upgrade to PBL 8.0. Then, you’ll need to utilize the new monetization.onetimeproducts service of the Play Developer API or use the Play Developer Console. You’ll also need to integrate with the queryProductDetailsAsync API to take advantage of these new capabilities. And while querySkuDetailsAsync and inappproducts service are not supported with the new model, they will continue to be supported as long as PBL 7 is supported.

Important considerations

• With this change, we will offer a backwards compatible way to port your existing SKUs into this new model. The migration will happen differently depending on how you decide to interact with your catalogue the first time you change the metadata for one or more products.
• New products created through Play Console UI are normalized. And products created or managed with the existing inappproducts service won’t support these new features. To access them, you’ll need to convert existing ones in the Play Developer Console UI. Once converted, a product can only be managed through the new Play Developer API or Play Developer Console. Products created through the new monetization.onetimeproducts service or through the Play Developer Console are already converted.
• Buy purchase options marked as ‘Backwards compatible’ will be returned as response for calls through querySkuDetailsAsync API. At launch, all existing products have a backwards compatible purchase option.
• At the time of this post, the pre-orders capability is available through the Early Access Program (EAP) only. If you are interested, please sign-up.
• One-time products will be reflected in the earnings reports at launch (Base plan ID and Offer ID columns will be populated for newly configured one-time products). To minimise the potential for breaking changes, we will be updating these column names in the earnings reports later this year.

We encourage you to explore the new Play Developer API and the updated Play Console interface to see how this enhanced flexibility can help you better manage your catalog and grow your business.

We’re excited to see how you leverage these new tools to connect with your users in innovative ways.

Posted by Daniel Trócoli – Google Play Partnerships

We’re thrilled to announce the return of Google Play’s Indie Games Fund (IGF) in Latin America for its fourth consecutive year! This year, we’re once again committing $2 million to empower another 10 indie game studios across the region. With this latest round of funding, our total investment in Latin American indie games will reach an impressive $8 million USD.

Since its inception, the IGF has been a cornerstone of our commitment to fostering growth for developers of all sizes on Google Play. We’ve seen firsthand the transformative impact this support has had, enabling studios to expand their teams, refine their creations, and reach new audiences globally.

What’s in store for the Indie Games Fund in 2025?

Just like in previous years, selected small game studios based in Latin America will receive a share of the $2 million fund, along with support from the Google Play team.

As Vish Game Studio, a previously selected studio, shared: “The IGF was a pivotal moment for our studio, boosting us to the next level and helping us form lasting connections.” We believe in fostering these kinds of pivotal moments for all our selected studios.

The program is open to indie game developers who have already launched a game, whether it’s on Google Play, another mobile platform, PC, or console. Each selected recipient will receive between $150,000 and $200,000 to help them elevate their game and realize their full potential.

Check out all eligibility criteria and apply now! Applications will close at 12:00 PM BRT on July 31, 2025. To give your application the best chance, remember that priority will be given to applications received by 12:00 PM BRT on July 15, 2025.

Posted by Chris Wilk – Group Product Manager, Games on Google Play

To captivate players and grow your game, you need tools that enhance discovery and retention. Play Games Services (PGS) is your key to unlocking a suite of services that connect you with over 2 billion monthly active players. PGS empowers you to drive engagement through features like achievements and increase retention with promotions tailored to each gameplay progress. These tools are designed to help you deliver relevant and compelling content that keeps players coming back.

We are continuously evolving gaming on Play, and this year, we’re introducing more PGS-powered experiences to give you deeper player insights and greater visibility in the Play Store. To access these latest advancements and ensure continued functionality, you must migrate from PGS v1 to PGS v2 by May 2026. Let’s take a closer look at what’s new:

Drive discovery and engagement by rewarding gameplay progress

We’re fundamentally transforming how achievements work in the Play Store, making them a key driver for a great gaming experience. Now deeply embedded across the store, achievements are easily discoverable via search filters and game detail pages, and further drive engagement when offered with Play Points.

At a minimum, you should have at least 15 achievements spread across the lifetime of the game, in the format of incremental achievements to show progress. Games that enable players to earn at least 5 achievements in the first 2 hours of gameplay are most successful in driving deeper engagement^*.

The most engaging titles offer 40 or more achievements with diverse types of goals including leveling up characters, game progression, hidden surprises, or even failed attempts. To help you get the most out of achievements, we’ve made it easier to create achievements with bulk configuration in Play Console.

For eligible titles^*, Play activates quests to reward players for completing achievements – for example with Play Points. Supercell activated quests for Hay Day, leading to an average 177% uplift in installs^*. You can tailor your quests to achieve specific campaign objectives, whether it’s attracting high-value players or driving spend through repeated engagement, all while making it easy to jump back into your game.

Increase retention with tailored promotions

Promotional content is a vital tool for you to highlight new events, major content updates, and exciting offers within your game. It turns Play into a direct marketing channel to re-engage with your players. We’ve enhanced audience targeting capabilities so you can tailor your content to reach and convert the most relevant players.

By integrating PGS, you can use the Play Grouping API to create custom segments based on gameplay context^*. Using this feature, Kabam launched promotional content to custom audiences for Marvel Contest of Champions, resulting in a 4x increase in lapsed user engagement^*.

Start implementing PGS features today

PGS is designed to make the sign-in experience more seamless for players, automatically syncing their progress and identity across Android devices. With a single tap, they can pick up where they left off or start a new game from any screen. Whether you use your own sign-in solution, services from third parties, or a combination of both, we’ve made it easier to integrate Play Games Services with the Recall API.

To ensure a consistent sign-in experience for all players, we’re phasing out PGS v1.

All games currently using PGS v1 must migrate to PGS v2 by May 2026. After this date, you will no longer be able to publish or update games that use the v1 SDK.

Below you’ll find the timeline to plan your migration:

Looking ahead, more opportunities powered by PGS

Coming soon, players will be able to generate unique, AI-powered avatars within their profiles – creating fun, diverse representations of their gaming selves. With PGS integration, developers can allow players to carry over their avatar within the game. This enables players to showcase their gaming identity across the entire gameplay experience, creating an even stronger motivation to re-engage with your game.

PGS is the foundational tool for maximizing your business growth on Play, enabling you to tailor your content for each player and access the latest gameplay innovations on the platform. Stay tuned for more PGS features coming this year to provide an even richer player experience.

Posted by Dan Brown – Product Manager, Google Play

Google Play empowers you to manage and distribute your innovative and trusted apps and games to billions of users around the world across the entire breadth of Android devices, and historically, all Android devices have managed memory in 4 KB pages.

As device manufacturers equip devices with more RAM to optimize performance, many will adopt larger page sizes like 16 KB. Android 15 introduces support for the increased page size, ensuring your app can run on these evolving devices and benefit from the associated performance gains.

Starting November 1st, 2025, all new apps and updates to existing apps submitted to Google Play and targeting Android 15+ devices must support 16 KB page sizes.

This is a key technical requirement to ensure your users can benefit from the performance enhancements on newer devices and prepares your apps for the platform’s future direction of improved performance on newer hardware. Without recompiling to support 16 KB pages, your app might not function correctly on these devices when they become more widely available in future Android releases.

We’ve seen that 16 KB can help with:

• Faster app launches: See improvements ranging from 3% to 30% for various apps.
• Improved battery usage: Experience an average gain of 4.5%.
• Quicker camera starts: Launch the camera 4.5% to 6.6% faster.
• Speedier system boot-ups: Boot Android devices approximately 8% faster.

We recommend checking your apps early especially for dependencies that might not yet be 16 KB compatible. Many popular SDK providers, like React Native and Flutter, already offer compatible versions. For game developers, several leading game engines, such as Unity, support 16 KB, with support for Unreal Engine coming soon.

Reaching 16 KB compatibility

A substantial number of apps are already compatible, so your app may already work seamlessly with this requirement. For most of those that need to make adjustments, we expect the changes to be minimal.

• Apps with no native code should be compatible without any changes at all.
• Apps using libraries or SDKs that contain native code may need to update these to a compatible version.
• Apps with native code may need to recompile with a more recent toolchain and check for any code with incompatible low level memory management.

Our December blog post, Get your apps ready for 16 KB page size devices, provides a more detailed technical explanation and guidance on how to prepare your apps.

Check your app’s compatibility now

It’s easy to see if your app bundle already supports 16 KB memory page sizes. Visit the app bundle explorer page in Play Console to check your app’s build compliance and get guidance on where your app may need updating.

Beyond the app bundle explorer, make sure to also test your app in a 16 KB environment. This will help you ensure users don’t experience any issues and that your app delivers its best performance.

For more information, check out the full documentation.

Thank you for your continued support in bringing delightful, fast, and high-performance experiences to users across the breadth of devices Play supports. We look forward to seeing the enhanced experiences you’ll deliver with 16 KB support.