Google Adds Manual Review to Android App Submission Process

Google has started manually reviewing apps before making them publicly available, a move to weed out programs that don’t meet the company’s standards.

Importantly, Google said it has been able to add manual components to the review process without developers even noticing a slowdown. The company still relies mostly on automated testing for its app review process.

“We are able to do these reviews in a matter of hours,” Google Play business development director Purnima Kochikar said in a telephone interview. “We are catching offenders early without adding friction.”

Google’s process contrasts with Apple’s, which involves a manual review and often takes days or weeks.

Separately, Google is also announcing Tuesday it will add geography-specific age ratings for Android apps. Developers can fill out a single questionnaire and get the appropriate age rating for different regions. Until now, Google had a single age rating regardless of region.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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