Starting October 30, 2024, a series of policy changes on Google Play will gradually take effect, impacting app developers.
Developers have at least 30 days from this date to ensure their apps comply with these updates.
It's essential for app developers to pay attention to policy updates to ensure compliance, maintain user trust, and leverage new features while avoiding legal and financial repercussions.
Below, we summarize the key changes and insights to help you navigate these adjustments effectively.
What's Changing?
Medical Functionalities Policy
📘Expanded Scope: The Medical Functionalities Policy is being expanded to include the latest medical guidance and disclaimer requirements for health and medical apps.
📘Policy Consolidation: Health-related policies are being consolidated under the Health Content and Services page for better accessibility.
By adhering to updated medical guidance and disclaimer requirements, apps can enhance their credibility and trustworthiness among users. This could lead to increased user adoption and retention, especially for apps dealing with sensitive health information
👏Expert Tips: Developers need to invest in additional resources to ensure their apps meet the new guidelines. You could hire legal experts, consult with medical professionals, or invest in new technologies to ensure compliance.
Health Connect Policy
📘Regulated Medical Devices: The Health Connect Policy now allows regulated medical devices to access and use Health Connect data, provided they comply with regulations and obtain explicit user consent.
Regulated medical devices can now leverage Health Connect data to offer more comprehensive and personalized health monitoring and management solutions, which could stimulate growth in the digital health market, attracting more investment and innovation in this sector.
👏Expert Tips: The release of the Medical Functionalities Policy and Health Connect Policy serves as a positive signal and may further boost the growth of the healthcare app market.
App developers and market researchers can consider this category as a key area of focus.
With updated medical guidance and data usage policies, apps and devices can enhance their reliability and user trust, which might attract more users to these products.
Since the release of the new policy on October 30th up until November 6th, Medical Apps have achieved 9,827,888 downloads on the Google Play global market.
During this period, the year-over-year (YoY) growth in downloads increased by 5.95%, while revenue saw a YoY growth of 0.73%.
Interested in learning more about market segment of Midical Apps?
👉 Click here to assist you in conducting further market research.
Allowing medical devices to access and use health data will help expand the market and attract more companies to enter this field, especially in digital health and telemedicine.
According to FoxData, there is currently a noticeable growth trend in new apps within the Medical category in the U.S. market as of November 4th.
It is anticipated that once these two policies are officially implemented, there will be a more positive growth trend in the global market.
👉 Click here to explore the trends in app market launches.
User Data and Privacy
📘Policy Update: The "Protecting User Data and Privacy" section of the Mobile Unwanted Software Policy has been updated to provide developers with clearer guidance on relevant policies.
👏Expert Tips: It's essential to conduct a comprehensive audit of your app to assess current data collection, usage, and sharing practices. Ensure all practices align with the new policy requirements.
Enforcement Process
📘Third-Party Code: Updates to the Enforcement Process page clarify how third-party code, like SDKs, may affect policy compliance.
👏Expert Tips: Conduct a thorough audit of all third-party code and SDKs integrated into your app. Ensure they comply with Google Play policies and do not introduce unwanted software behaviors.
Important Reminders
New Child Safety Standards
📘🗓️Deadline Extension:
Social and dating apps have until January 22, 2025, to comply with the new Child Safety Standards Policy.
This involves self-certification on Play Console before publishing. Declarations will be available in December.
👏
Expert Tips: To prepare for the self-certification process, make sure to thoroughly understand the new child safety standards.
Otherwise, you will face the risk of being removed from the market.
According to
FoxData-Remove Monitor, Dating Apps experienced a significant wave of removals in April and May of this year, primarily due to the impact of the
Child Safety Standards policy introduced in April.
👉 Click
here to explore the trends in app market removals
Photo and Video Permissions
: Introduced last October, this policy aims to limit apps from requesting broad photo/video permissions.
🗓️Extended Deadlines: Starting January 22, 2025, apps can only access photos and videos for functions directly related to app functionality. Extensions can be requested until May 28, 2025. Apps with infrequent access needs should use a system picker like the Android photo picker.
👏
Expert Tips: Review your app's permissions to ensure they are essential for its functionality. To comply with new guidelines, consider using system pickers for accessing media files. If you require more time, apply for an extension before the specified deadlines.
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