With Android 12L, for the first time in many years, Google has an operating system in its portfolio that has been specially optimized for tablets and is intended to give devices with larger displays more options. It has now been announced that the Google Play Store will also take this form factor into account in the future: on tablets, apps optimized for large displays, in particular, should be suggested and ranked high.
After many years of almost complete ignorance, Google sees great potential in tablets again and only recently announced the tablets first motto, which is apparently to be lived very actively: Not only Google will optimize its own apps for tablets, which has hardly been done so far, but also all other app developers should think about how they can make better use of the larger surfaces.
Apps for tablets will be ranked higher
In the next few months, some changes will be made in the Google Play Store to recommend apps for users of tablets and foldable. The target device class and the implementation of the new tablet rules will be of great importance for the ranking of apps. Smartphone apps can still be installed on the tablet, but these will only be found further down in the search results.
So those who are already optimizing their apps for tablets could receive significantly more traffic in the future than the developers, who will continue to see only inflated smartphones in the tablets in the future. A new gold digger mood could break out, but you should be there very early.
Play Store editorial team focuses on tablets
The Google Play Store team wants to further expand the editorial area and also recommend tablet apps in the future. Specifically, it’s about emphasizing apps that are optimized for larger displays. Of course only on the devices that have such a display.
Ratings separated by device class
The new focus on tablets, foldable and devices with large displays will also be reflected in the ratings: In the future, users will be able to filter the ratings and reviews by device type. That would have been necessary before, but now it’s finally being introduced. Because some apps can feel completely different or contain bugs depending on the device used or the display size.
The categories Phone, Tablet, Chromebook, Automotive, TV and Smartwatch will be available in the future. All changes are to be rolled out to tablets and foldable for the Google Play Store over the next few months.