Android Market Changes Now Official

Everyone has been reporting upcoming changes to the Android Market – and now they’re here.  Developers have received an email from Google detailing all of the changes.  Google added improved app listing, better image previews, and AT&T carrier billing (AT&T users can opt to have the cost of apps added to their monthly bill).  Read more from Google’s email below.

Hello,

We’re writing to inform you about some changes to Android Market that require your attention.

As we mentioned in an email sent last week, we’ve been updating Android Market with several new features that may affect your applications. That update is now complete and the features are now active:

* The purchase refund period is now 15 minutes, and the maximum size for .apk files is now 50MB.
* The details page for every app now displays the app’s “Promotional Graphic” assets at the top.
* Market is now capable of filtering based on screen sizes and densities. NOTE: Filtering based on GL texture compression formats is not active at this time, but will be available in early January 2011.
* Applications are now automatically added to new Live Wallpapers and Widgets categories, as appropriate.

We’ve also activated two new features on the Publisher site:
* The maximum size of the description field for an application is raised to 4000 characters.
* A minimum of two screen shots is now required for all applications. You can supply up to eight screenshots for each application.

Additionally, we’ve recently redesigned the categories on Android Market to better support users and developers. We’ve split some popular categories, renamed others, and added completely new categories. At this time, we recommend that you take a look at the categories and ensure that your applications are assigned to the best categories for them. For details, see the Android Market Help Center:

https://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=113475

Finally, we wanted to bring to your attention that Android Market now offers a new form of payment for users on the AT&T network — Direct Carrier Billing. This payment option lets Android users on the AT&T network purchase applications more easily.

Thank you once again for your continued support of Android Market.

Regards,
The Android Market Team

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