Google downgrades apps that often crash in Play Store search results

Google recently changed its algorithm for displaying search results in the Play Store. The quality of the app is now also taken into account. If apps often crash or drain the battery quickly, they will appear lower in the list.

According to Google, the changes have a positive effect. On the Android developer blog, Google writes that people are using “high-quality apps” more and are deleting apps less often. It is not known when the changes took effect.

Google doesn’t detail how it rates apps for crashes and issues like battery drain, but it likely uses the diagnostic data sent to Google when an app crashes.

The Play Store administrator emphasizes to developers that they can use Android vitals to detect performance issues. According to Google, instability of apps is one of the biggest annoyances for users. In half of all 1-star ratings in the Play Store, app stability is said to be a criticism.