What’s new on Android and Google Play

Q3 2020

Updates from Android 11 games and media week

We shared updates on tools, developer previews, Codelabs and more in our August blog post about Games. Learn how to better understand your game’s performance, expand your reach to more devices and new audiences, and support your go-to-market with Google Play.

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Catch all the latest Android game updates and resources by visiting developer.android.com/games

What’s new for game developers

Android tools for mobile game development

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Android Studio 4.1: enhancements in CPU Profiling expose more data with an improved UI with System Trace. Native Memory Profiling adds visualization, startup profiling, and sampling rate configurations.

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Android Game Development Extension: now with support for Visual Studio 2019 and standalone Android Studio Profilers.

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Android GPU Inspector: now in open beta. Understand the bottlenecks and use the insights to optimize the graphical performance of your game. Learn more from our recent blog post.

Reach more devices and users

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Texture compression format targeting: just launched; learn about popular texture compression formats used in games and how to target them in Android App Bundles.

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Play Asset Delivery: now with auto-updates, delta patching, and device targeting. App bundle format will be required for all new games, beginning August 2021, so get started today and try the new Codelab.

Boost your go-to-market

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Play Games Services - Friends: now in open beta, help players easily find and play with friends across Android games.

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In App Review API: prompt users to leave a review from within your game. Learn more in our recent blog post.

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Google Play Console update

The new Play Console helps you work faster and more efficiently, with features to help you grow your business on Google Play. From November 2, 2020 we will retire the old Play Console, so if you haven’t yet, make the switch to the new version today.

Spotlight: Android Performance Tuner

Learn how to measure and optimize your game's frame rate stability and graphical fidelity across Android devices at scale to deliver the best possible experience to each of your users.

Try a Codelab: Integrating Android Performance Tuner into your Unity game or native Android game.

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Help shape our game developer tools

Tell us about your experiences, challenges, and suggestions to help make our tools for game developers more helpful.

COMPLETE SURVEY

Featured Medium articles and videos

Impact of lockdown on mobile gamers' behaviors

Improve your game with texture format targeting

How to kickstart your LiveOps experience with Firebase

Notable dates & deadlines

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Account Hold and Restore:

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November 1, 2020: all games that use in-app subscriptions must support Account Hold and Restore.

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November 1, 2020: all subscriptions will be automatically opted into Pause and Resubscribe unless these features are proactively turned off in Google Play Console.

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TargetSDK - Android 10 (API level 29):

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November 2, 2020: all game updates must target at least Android 10 (API level 29).

UPCOMING DEADLINES

Play Academy: Games Business Fundamentals

Master pricing and monetization strategies with the latest courses in the Games Business Fundamentals learning path on Play Academy.

LAUNCH PLAY ACADEMY

Thanks for tuning in,

The Google Play team

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