We have all been there. We follow some of our favorite developers on social media and see that an update is on the way to an icon pack, watch face, game or app. The developer says “Pushed the update to Google, should be live in a couple of hours. Check back soon.” So we all rush to the Play Store and look, nothing. An hour later, we look again, and still nothing. Sometimes we forget or give up until the next day. That is apparently going to be a thing of the past according to Google’s own support documents that Readwrite covered.
Update apps using standard or timed publishing
When you’re ready to publish an update to an existing app, you have two ways to publish your update: standard publishing and timed publishing.
- Standard publishing: Updates to existing apps are processed and published as soon as possible, usually within a few hours.
- Timed publishing: Updates to existing apps are processed as usual, but you control the specific moment your update goes live.
- You can use timed publishing to publish an app update at a specific time for an ad campaign or launch event. You can also use timed publishing when you want to release a new APK and make sure it goes live at the same time as any changes to your app’s store listing and Pricing & Distribution page.
Timed publishing is the key here. However, the change is only an available option on app updates, not on app releases. Basically any current app on the Play Store could use timed publishing for major updates that bring new functions, features or content, but those developers releasing a new app all together are still stuck in Published purgatory for a short time.
Adoption rate for an update is often times just as important as adoption time from release. Hopefully Google will put timed publishing into place for new released apps as well. It would certainly help with coverage from a press release or an announcement from a developer. Nothing erks me more than hearing something is set to release, but not see it available just yet. Or, the other side of the coin, find out it is being launched, but that it has been out for a day already.
