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At Google I/O in May, the search giant announced a slew of new features for Google Play. One of those features being the “Early Access” feature. This is a section in Google Play that developers can list their apps before they are ready to launch. Allowing them to get a group of beta users together to test out the new app or game and provide feedback before it is released to everyone. However, Early Access appeared to be available to only a handful of developers. Not anymore. Today, Google announced that they are opening it up to every developer out there. But there is a caveat here. You still need to be approved by Google before your app will appear in the Early Access section.
To get started, developers just need to fill out a simple form for Google to approve them. Now just because you do apply to get your app or game into the program, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be successful in getting in there. Google also noted that in the first month that Early Access was available to everyone, open beta titles had been downloaded over a million times. This is a great thing for developers as it gives them a ton of exposure before their app is even officially launched in the Play Store. This may solve one of the big problems that developers have, and that is getting users.
With these Early Access apps and games, users aren’t able to leave reviews, but they are able to send feedback to the developer. This is essential as these are beta releases, and there are going to be bugs and issues with each release. That’s something that shouldn’t be put in a review that will be present on the Google Play Store forever. And sending back feedback to the developer is always a good thing.
If you’re a developer and you want to get your app or game into Google Play’s Early Access, be sure to hit the source link below and fill out that form. Google does reserve the right to pick apps and games that will be part of the program.