Google Play pilot take a look at in USA introduces a ‘free app of the week’ section



Apple began giving a “free app of the week” back in 2012 as a way of lightness a number of the App Store’s best titles and inspiring users to begin downloading. Google, belatedly, is following in Apple’s footsteps with its own recently launched “free app of the week” section on Google Play. However, we have a tendency to perceive that Google has not nonetheless committed to form this a regular feature.

Instead, Google Play’s “free app of the week” are a few things the corporate is testing solely within the U.S. for a four-week period. Internally, it’s being thought-about a pilot program.

The feature was at the start noticed by automaton Police, that detected the section had begun showing on the Play Store on each desktop and mobile, that includes a free transfer of the unremarkably $2.99 game Card Wars – journey Time from Cartoon Network.

VentureBeat reports the section was introduced last week, however Cartoon Network says that it’s not conscious of any app being promoted before its app. the present promotion runs from weekday to weekday, ending on March thirty, 2017.

We additionally perceive that Google Play approached Cartoon Network to raise if it needed to participate within the pilot program. the corporate wasn't progressing to run a buying deal at the time, but agreed.

This additionally suggests that there's a lot of of a writing choice method for those apps that ar bringing to light because the “free app of the week,” instead of some formula that’s parsing Google Play for fashionable apps that were already on sale.

Though Cartoon Network is currently giving its app away for complimentary as a part of this program, Google isn't compensating the publisher for the downloads.
This is not the primary time Google has offered a free app of the week. Google had antecedently tested the model back in 2015, once it unrolled a “free app of the week” within the family section of Google Play. At the time, it had been giving a free app from PBS children.

It’s additionally not the primary time that automaton users are able to transfer paid content for complimentary — Amazon in 2015 launched Amazon Underground, {a section|a neighborhood|an ara|a district|a region|a locality|a vicinity|a part} on its own Amazon Appstore wherever premium apps are offered for complimentary. Its model compensates developers supported however long these apps ar used, the corporate aforementioned.

And, of course, app publishers additionally typically run their own sales in a trial to spice up downloads and their Google Play ranking.

Google declined to investigate the business model around its “free app of the week,” however.

A company exponent instead offered the subsequent statement, “We ar forever creating enhancements to Google Play to supply to the simplest service potential to our customers.”