What’s Google Play
You can find apps, games, movies, books, magazines, or other digital content with Google Play. You can use Google Play to browse, locate, download, use, rent, or purchase content.
Content on Google Play
Content you find on Google Play comes from Google, and from third-party providers such as app developers, movie studios, and book and news publishers (“Providers”). In accordance with the Google Play Terms of Service, providers' content can no longer be offered on Google Play if it violates our content policies or violates applicable laws.
How Google Play helps you find the apps
There are many ways to discover apps on Google Play. When you organize apps, many factors are involved, such as:
- User relevance: Apps that Google Play tries to show you are those apps that are relevant to your interests and needs. For example, if you look for a game, Google Play will show you games that are popular in your country or region and have good ratings.
- Quality of the app experience: Apps that Google Play favors are those apps that have a good user experience and are technically sound. For example, apps that crash or have many bugs are less likely to have a higher ranking.
- Editorial value: Editors at Google Play also hand-pick apps they think are noteworthy and interesting. These apps will feature on Google Play or in the Google Play newsletter.
- Ads: Some developers choose to pay Google Play to promote their apps. Google Play marks these apps as ads, but they will still show alongside other apps in search results and on other parts of Google Play.
- User experience: When users browse and download apps, Google Play wants to make sure that the users have a positive experience. For example, Google Play makes it easy to find apps that are compatible with your device and that have reviews by other users.
When you use the search functionality, Google Play tries to return relevant content by establishing what you're looking for such as a specific app or a category of apps, and give results that best answer your search query. The main factors that impact the ranking of search results is the relevance to your search terms, the quality of each in-app experience, and how you engage with each piece of content. When ranking search results, Google Play considers whether an app would be relevant to and appropriate for a broad audience.
To generate app recommendations in a “For You” section, Google Play can show personalized recommendations with information we collect, such as previously installed apps.
Advertisers pay Google to display advertisements in Google Play. Ads on Google Play will always have a label like "ads" or "sponsored." While advertisers can pay to be displayed more prominently in the advertising area, no one can buy better placement in Play’s search results. Moreover, ads will only display if they're relevant to the search terms you enter. That means you only get ads that are useful.
For more details on the main factors that influence the rank of apps, go to App Discovery and Ranking.