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google 2019 io conference

Play Store will Now Prefer the Recent Reviews to Rate the Apps

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Till now, Google has revealed many new launches and numerous changes to its services at its annual I/O conference going on in California, U.S., including new features added to the Google Assistant, the launch of new Assistant-powered home hub under the Nest brand, the launch of Pixel 3a and 3a XL, etc. And along with bringing new APIs and a refreshed Google Play Console data to the Play Store, the company has now introduced how the Play Store ratings will work.

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Image Source: theleaker.com

About two years ago, Apple made a change to the App Store on how the ratings would work for the apps. The company allowed the app developers to decide whether or not their ratings will reset to with every new update. In a similar way, Google has also revealed that from now, the apps won’t get rated on the basis of their previous performances, but after updates, those will be rated on their latest reviews and other factors.

Reviews and ratings have been crucial to the promotion of a product, and in fact, to the promotion of apps on the app stores, as people read the reviews before they install one on to their devices. In recent years, due to the old bad app reviews, the average rating of certain apps was degrading them. Despite new updates, the old reviews were also part of the average rating. But now the new average rating calculations will consider the latest reviews and updates to rate the app, as to give more preference to the latest reviews.

“You told us you wanted a rating based on what your app is today, not what it was years ago, and we agree,” said Milena Nikolic, the engineering director leading Google Play Console.

Google is also working on a new reply feature, that will be in response to the user reviews. The developer will get to choose among three options to reply to a review. These options will include an auto-generated response, which the user can directly select and send, customise it and send or write a response and send. For now, those responses will be in English, but Google will soon add some other languages to the system.

The company has revealed that the average rating calculations will be updated for all the android apps. The developers can preview the new ratings on their Play Store Console from today onwards, while the end users will be able to see it only after August this year.

Google Reveals its 2019 I/O Conference Dates Through a Fun Puzzle

News, Tech News / By
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Google has admitted that it is going to organise its upcoming I/O 2019 Developer’s conference at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California from May 7 to May 9. Like every other year, the company is all set to showcase its new products and innovations at the conference.

On January 25, the company twitted a puzzle, an cryptic, 12-line block of a tweet along with a URL and an enigmatic video, having the narration for the tweet in it, from Google’s Google Developers Twitter account. The tweet hid the date and the venue of the event for the Twitterati, such that the netizens would decode it, like every other year.

Google, every year, put up such fun, puzzle tweets so that the netizens will do some brainstorming and find out the details about the I/O events.

Although a Twitter user, named Till Kottman, took only a few hours to solve the puzzle after the tweet was uploaded. Kottman spotted an early tweet from a now-deleted account, @internaltest189, that had posted a JSON code and had hidden Google I/O event dates in it.

After Kottman tweeted the right dates, the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, also tweeted regarding the same confirming the dates and the venue of the event.

Although, the date and the place for the event are not much of surprise for people, as last year too, the conference held at the same place and during the first two weeks of the same month. Most of the times, the conference’s dates have been ensuring the same time of the month.

Last year, the company came across with its new OS, Android P, in beta, improved Google News, and even revealed its Duplex AI project, in the event. Google has not given any hints on what it may unveil on the conference, but we already have got an idea about a few things including the Android’s next emphasis, the Android Q, an updated Google Assistant, Google Lens, Maps, and News, etc.

The company is also anticipated to reveal the Pixel devices including, Pixel 3 Lite and Pixel 3 XL Lite. Google might also discuss its controversial Duplex project in the event.