By UPDATE!!! WATCH THIS VIDEO(thanks Jordan):
Everyone knows that the ability for developers to upload and users to view screenshots on Android Market is a HUGE and unmet need that has been repeatedly addressed. Today Google got one step closer to making it reality – Android Developers can log into their accounts and upload screen shots and a promotion image for their application. Android Market screenshots are imminent!
Here is what we saw when logging in to upload screenies for Phandroid News:
AWESOME! But there is one HUGE thing to note:
“Screenshots are available only on the market.android.com website at this time and will not show on the device”
That kind of stinks but is understandable. When adding an update of this magnitude it makes sense they would do it in stages and roll out slowly. So I quickly put together a screenshot just to test if it would allow me to upload along with one of the promotional images, keeping their size demands in mind:
Then I hit the SAVE button and was met with an error:
I went ahead and added a second screenshot and included the promotional text that they required, clicked SAVE again and all was good in the hood. The only question now is will it show my screenshots on the Market Website? Unfortunately because of Android Market’s limited ability to display applications in the FIRST place, Phandroid News isn’t anywhere to be found. Maybe that is the market’s first problem… don’t you think our App should be FEATURE? :)
In any case, developers should get their screenshots up and consumers should keep an eye on this because a big market update seems imminent. The quicker devs move to supporting this upgrade feature the quicker I imagine Google will try to implement. Two cheers for continued improvement! Keep up the good work GOOG.
UPDATE #2: I just found the Android Dev post referencing all this… surprised nobody posted it before Phandroid! Looks like in addition to screen shots they’ve also updated the directory categorization by adding a few more cats. Here is the content from that post which you can read in full here:
Some News from Android Market
Posted by Eric Chu, Android Mobile Platform on 03 September 2009 at 3:30 PMI’m pleased to let you know about several updates to Android Market. First, we will soon introduce new features in Android Market for Android 1.6 that will improve the overall experience for users. As part of this change, developers will be able to provide screenshots, promotional icons and descriptions that will better show off applications and games.
We have also added four new sub-categories for applications: sports, health, themes, and comics. Developers can now choose these sub-categories for both new and existing applications via the publisher website. Finally, we have added seller support for developers in Italy. Italian developers can go to the publisher website to upload applications and target any of the countries where paid applications are currently available to users.
To take advantage of the upcoming Android Market refresh, we encourage you to visit the Android Market publisher website and upload additional marketing assets. Check out the video below for some of the highlights.
[Thanks Tom (dev of Battery Refresh Beta)!]
Lol I sent you this video a few seconds ago! Well just in case you don’t see it the links here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ma9Xh67Eyo
awww 2nd
But this looks amazing
I HOPE I CAN GET THIS ON MY G1
That looks great :) i have a strong feeling that the donut release is coming real soon, probably by early november
Donut? Old News. Old old.New market is nice. Now that Sprint HERO ROM will look NICE on my G1! maybe a little easier to work with then some of the other HERO Roms?!!! when HERO 2.0 DROPS Start happening things will be sweet. I just hope I can Skin the market back to Black.. White is just too bright
It would suck big time if this isn’t released for the G1. There is no reason they can’t update the market app separately!
very cool, cant wait for this. I feel like I skip over so many programs because I have no idea what I am actually getting, screenshots should really help. I also like the new lighter theme.
btw is that an official donut logo on the video? very funny
oh forgot to ask…is there a dedicated spot for update notes now? they REALLY need that…having to share the product description now is so lame.
While I like the new look, this doesn’t go in the direction I wish.
What I most frequently want to do is browse for apps, with no specific type/theme in mind. I just want to discover “cool” stuff, things I never heard about, not have more restrictive categories. I never use them, as I’d have time to browse too many categories, which is a pain.
What I need are filters. Here are the things I want to be able to NOT see:
– apps only provided in languages I don’t know. This is becoming more and more of a problem on Market, with more and more apps in Chinese/Asian languages, or in European languages I don’t know. I want to be able to see only apps in English/French/German. Also think about people who can’t read English: it has to be trivial for them to never see English only apps… Brutal, but that’s the experience I’d expect. There are tons of ebooks too.
– apps with irrelevant local contents. I don’t want to see all these maps of places that are irrelevant to my current location. I don’t want the metro map of London to ever appear, or at least, I should be able to filter out everything further than 100 miles away from my current location. Conversely, the day I take the plane and land in NY, I want the NY metro maps to appear right away with all NY specific content apps. Other example: TV guides. Do I care about German/Swedish/UK TV guides? These all exist on Android market in 2 versions (lite & full)… As I live in the US, I couldn’t care less. And vice-versa. Local content is only ever relevant to a minority of people, as only a minority of users live in or around that location/country.
– apps from “bad” authors. There are way too many publishers that make 10s or 100s of apps that are all crappy, in the same spirit. Like the “Celebrity XXX sound/pics pack” apps, and the like, that change ringtones and/or wallpapers and the like according to a theme. They build 10s of these. Other example: I heard Apple banned an Indian app developer who authored over 800 apps, all of dubious interest. Rather than have this guy be banned (which is always unpopular), we could better let users decide for themselves and maybe let the developers know how often they’ve been filtered out permanently.
– low ratings: I often don’t even bother with an app with less than 3 stars.
Please improve market: this is where the value of the platform is built, yet, the app itself is not too good… :-(
What phone is this in the demo?
Better Market is definately good news.
However, I’m disappointed that only a single new country was added to the list of countries where apps can be sold, Italy.
I’m located in Finland and I can’t sell apps yet. This is terribly because I might have something to sell soon.
Of course the images won’t show on the device yet – the current Android Market wasn’t written to show images. You’ll have to wait for Android 1.6. The big question is – what will be in Android 1.6? Other than a new market and a visual refresh (looks like they’re going with white instead of black this time).
Hmm disappointed they are not adding better sorting such as alphabetical sorting etc grrr
I’m also hoping for Donut soon…
So Doughnut has screen lag too. At least they showed it in the demonstration unlike the Hero videos.
No one cares if you posted a video on youtube.
Cro-
Of course it could be a different phone, but the wallpaper in the video is on the myTouch.
Am i the only one who notices the new sections are now i the market? Ex… comics/theams?
The market needs to show the date of the apps so you can figure out what apps you have already looked at. It is hard to remember how far back I have to go, so I don’t miss someting new.