With over two million apps competing for your attention, it's easy to get overwhelmed searching the Google Play Store.
To help make sure that search doesn't end with a dud, Google is now implementing a new system that lends visibility to higher-quality apps on its digital marketplace, according to TechCrunch.
Google's new algorithm for the Play Store will now rank more stable, secure, and optimized apps higher than apps prone to crashes, security issues or technical glitches.
While Google didn't share specifics on its new ranking system, the tech company is considering multiple factors such as reviews, reported crashes and the rate certain apps are uninstalled to help cull apps it deems unworthy.
Better do those debugs
Google's reasoning for this initiative is likely two-fold. First, giving visibility to better-made apps offers developers incentive to provide quality assurance for their products, resulting in users enjoying higher-quality apps.
Second, the algorithm tones down the popularity of "fad" apps that sometimes crop up and gain a lot of installs (and therefore, visibility) overnight, only to have a litany of one-star reviews pop up, making the Play Store's app discovery features — and by extension, the Play Store itself — look substandard.
It'll be some time before we see if Google's new algorithm lets the cream to rise to the Play Store's top, but as developers scrap to have their app noticed among millions of competitors, that extra coat of polish may be the difference between a number one slot or being banished to obscurity.
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