Android users will be presented better-performing apps in the Google Play Store as the search giant announced that it has started ranking apps in search results.

Now, “quality apps,” those that rate highly on “performance and quality expectations,” now appear above apps that have excessive battery usage, slow rendering times and crashes.

According to Google Play Product Manager Andrew Ahn, the decision to rank apps by quality came about when the Android team discovered that half of one-star reviews mentioned app stability. “As part of our continued effort to deliver the best possible Google Play experience, we recently enhanced our search and discovery algorithms to reflect app quality,” Ahn wrote. “This results in higher quality apps being surfaced in the Play Store more than similar apps of lower quality (eg: apps that exhibit more frequent crashes).”

Google said the change has had a positive impact on engagement so far, with people using higher-quality apps and uninstalling apps less often.

It’s a potential blow to smaller-scale developers who develop apps that might not meet the new high standards. But the Android team has also rolled out a feature called “Android Vitals” that the company claims will identify key performance issues during app testing, so that developers can fix issues before launch.

“Google Play strives to help people find and discover safe, high quality, useful, and relevant apps,” Ahn added. “By focusing on the quality and performance of your app, you’ll find more success on Google Play.”

Although the move is good, in theory, it won’t affect the ranking of the most commonly known Android battery-sucking apps such as Facebook, which is known among Android users to suck battery life like a sailor consumes alcohol at a bar.

Photo: joho345/Wikimedia Commons