Google will ban app names that mislead or contain ranking from Play store

Google has drawn up new policies for the Play store, including for the metadata of an app. An app name may contain only thirty characters and must not be misleading or indicate a ranking within the app store. It is not known when the policy will take effect.

The new policies concern the icon, app and developer name of an app offered in the Store. With the new rules, Google wants to ensure that Store users are not misled and that they understand what kind of app it is.

App names and icons must soon be clear and clear, whereby they may not indicate any ranking in the title or icon. For example, developers will not be allowed to indicate in the title that their racing game is the best racing game within the Play store. Reporting in the title or icon that an app is free or on sale will no longer be allowed.

App names and icons should also not prompt downloads or updates; a title that says ‘download now’ will therefore soon be banned. Finally, emojis, superfluous punctuation marks and capital letters will no longer be allowed. App names can only be capitalized if they are part of a company name. App titles and icons that do not comply with these rules at the time of the new policy will no longer be allowed on the Play Store.

Google is less strict about the videos, images and descriptions of apps; here the company is talking about new guidelines rather than policies. According to these new guidelines, these images and texts must accurately represent an app, provide enough information to users, must not contain buzzwords such as free or best, must be correct for the user’s region and be easy to read. .

These new guidelines will come into effect in the second half of the year. Apps that do not follow these guidelines may be excluded from promotions and recommendations within Google Play environments such as Apps and Games.

The new policies around app titles and icons.