One of the key ‘advantages’ of the Google Play Store over the iOS App Store is that it allows developers to publish their apps to the store without any prior verification. However, this led many developers to publish malicious and low-quality apps that violate certain terms and conditions of the the Play Store.

Due to this, Google started analyzing submitted apps for any kind of policy violations before it went live on the Play Store since the last couple of months. The company’s internal reviewers will continue to analyze apps before they are allowed to go live on the Play Store.

As revealed by Director of Business Development for Google Play, Purnima Kochikar, the new app review system took more than six months to implement, and has been designed in such a way that there is no additional delay in publishing apps to the Play Store. Unlike the iOS App Store where getting an app approval can take days, Android apps on the Google Play Store are approved in hours.

“We started reviewing all apps and games before they’re published – it’s rolled out 100%,” says Kochikar. “And developers haven’t noticed the change.”

The reason why Google’s app reviewing process is so fast is because Google does not present its app reviewers with all the apps submitted to the Play Store. Instead, the company uses an algorithm to analyze apps and games for certain criteria like sexual content, copyright violations and more. Kochikar does admit though that Google’s implementation is not “as robust” as those of its “rivals.”

A positive effect of this change from Google is that developers will now be able to see more details about their app’s publishing status through the Developer Console.

In addition on this, Google also announced that it is bringing age-based rating system to the Play Store. Starting from May, developers will have to answer to a specified set of questions relating to their app or game so that it can be given an appropriate age-based rating. Since the ratings are different for different regions of the world, Google has worked with the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) and other bodies on implementing the system.

In other regions of the world where no such rating system exists, Google will display a generic rating. For now, the age-based rating system remains optional, but it will become a must for developers from May. Any unrated app will not be displayed in certain regions of the world or to specific users.