Promotional app videos on Google Play will now start playing automatically to attract users and show off app features.
This means that, when you open an app on the store to view more information about it, you might be greeted by a video that starts playing without your consent.
No ad to show here.
Google made the announcement on its Play Console Help blog last week, informing app developers of the change.
“Google Play will start auto-playing store listing videos to help more users discover your content at a glance,” the company said.
While this will undoubtedly become annoying for users, for developers it means demonetising their videos and disabling ads.
“Developers with a video in their store listing must disable ads by 1 November 2019, to keep the video eligible to be shown on Google Play,” Google also said.
According to the company, enabled ads and monetisation could distract users from the promotional content by advertising another brand within the video (if it is hosted on a platform like YouTube).
In August Google also gave the Play Store a “cleaner” redesign, aimed at improving navigation on the platform. It could also receive a paid tier called Play Pass that would allow users to enjoy the Play Store’s apps without ads in the near future.
Google Play’s new bad habit, however, seems like a bit of a step back from the “premium store” it aims to be.
Feature image: Shereesa Moodley/ Memeburn
