Google I/O, 2016 for the first time featured the Google Play Awards held on the 19th of May. Following in Apple’s footsteps, Google has taken this initiative to encourage the developers who create waves through their apps. Such an ecosystem created by the developers has helped the company sustain its growth rate.
In the previous years the company had listed large numbers in lists starting in “Best of”, thus negating the necessity of declaring a winner. This year, however, they have taken a step away from their normal course and decided to declare winners across different categories.
Unlike Apple, the Google jury has selected five nominees across different categories.
These categories contain conditions like “Best use of Google Play Game Services” and “Best Use of the New Google Design Language”.
For the first time ever, the event was live-streamed.
With over a billion active users daily and 65 billion installs, this kind of award is like increase choices for the users and eventually those numbers.
Based on a performance rating over the past 12 months, the best app selected was Houzz, beating its competitors from the top 5 (BuzzFeed News, Colorfly, TuneIn Radio and Yummly).
The best game award was won by Clash Royale. This one must have been close considering its competitors in the top 5 were: Alphabear, Clash of Kings< Marvel Future Fight, and Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes.
Apple’s awards to third party developers have encouraged developers over the years, but Android being a much wider platform promises to attract more attention from startups and individual developers community.
Contrary to the company’s corporate motto “Don’t be evil”, this kind of an initiative promises to provide a wicked competition among developers, as they seek the zenith year after year. As long as we get to reap the benefits!
