Google Introduces Age Rating System to Google Play

Google Play ratingsGoogle has added an age-based rating system for the apps on its Play store.

Developers will be asked to complete a questionnaire about the content of each app they submit in order to automatically give it a location-specific content rating.

Initially, apps without a completed rating questionnaire will be marked as unrated, which may lead to them being blocked in certain territories. Starting from May, however, all new apps – and updates to existing apps – will require a completed questionnaire before they can be published on the store.

“Consistent with industry best practices, this change will give developers an easy way to communicate familiar and locally relevant content ratings to their users and help improve app discovery and engagement by letting people choose content that is right for them,” wrote Google Play product manager Eunice Kim in a blog post.

In the same post, Kim also confirmed that several months ago, Google began reviewing apps ahead of publishing them, in order to detect and violations of its developer policies.

According to Kim: “We value the rapid innovation and iteration that is unique to Google Play, and will continue to help developers get their products to market within a matter of hours after submission, rather than days or weeks” – seemingly a jab at Apples notoriously slow review process for its own App Store.