At Google I/O 2017 event, the company made an announcement that got overshadowed by other news of Android updates and features and consequently gained little or no media coverage- the launch of Android Vitals dashboard.
And while this new feature may not be immediately much valuable to the users, it aims at addressing the major concerns and goals of Android app developers- to push user engagement and subsequently, app installs. But to get a clear picture of the vital role Android Vitals will play, it is important to understand the current state and trends of Google Play.
Google Play has currently over 2.8 million mobile apps, which obviously means there are dozens, if not hundreds, of apps for each specific service. And when a user needs an app, they neither have time nor the inclination to go through each of those apps but rely primarily on the ratings and reviews given by previous users.
What this means is that it creates a snowball effect where the apps on top continue to get the lion’s share of installs, pushing the apps lower down the list below.
Now, if you look at this behavior from Android developer’s lens, it presents a risky prospect. Because no matter how hard they try, initial bugs and glitches are bound to occur, which reflected in their ratings, can be disastrous. By the time they release corresponding updates and patches, they have gone down below the list that it becomes virtually impossible to bounce back. This is the exact problem what Android Vitals aims to solve.
After an internal analysis of app reviews on Google Play, it concluded that the majority of bad ratings can be attributed mainly to app stability and performance-related issues. The only way developers could rectify them without risking the future prospects of app is to inform about such instances in real-time. Using this data, they can take preemptive measures to improve app performance, which will result in higher user engagement, thus translating in higher app installs.
So how does Android Vitals work?
Every Android developer can access the Android Vitals dashboard on their Google Play console, using which they can monitor and analyze a variety of app performance metrics and take corrective actions accordingly. The data provided include:
Stability: ANR rate & crash rate
Application Not Responding is perhaps one of the most dreaded behaviors- where the UI of an app gets frozen that users absolutely hate. And if that happens on a frequent basis, users are willing to uninstall the app and post a bad rating. Also, perhaps the only worse thing that an application can do than not responding is to crash abruptly. While the aim of every Android app developer should be to bring both these figures to zero, the least they can do is to promptly identify the causes and release patches at the earliest.
Render time: frozen UI frames & slow rendering
As you might know, any UI frame, considered to be frozen, takes more than 700ms to load, itis extremely irritating for the users. Using Android Vitals, you can monitor all such instances and optimize individual components before your users run out of patience. Additionally, you may have heard the popular phrase- the only thing worse than no internet is slow internet, the same goes for mobile apps as well. If your UI components take more than 16 ms to load, you are essentially testing the patience of your users, which by all means, don’t reflect a bright prospect for your app.
Battery usage: excessive wakeups & stuck wake-locks
Today, mobile phones are the epitome of multitasking, upon which the users rely for a variety of their needs. You must realize that your app constitutes only a part of their ecosystem and not their sole objective. Since the battery is one of the biggest constraints of mobile phones, your app consuming more power than the value it brings is a clear indication for the users to look for other alternatives.
But if you carefully analyze the data, you can always find ways to optimize the battery consumption and prevent excessive battery drainage that users often complain about.