What Google I/O 2025 means for ASO: key updates

Google I/O 2025 brought a plethora of AI news, but beneath the headlines, Google also rolled out updates that impact app visibility and engagement directly through the Play Store. From new creative assets to updated developer tools, here’s what every ASO practitioner should know.

Key takeaways

• New visual assets like the hero content carousel and YouTube playlist carousel are coming to Google Play store listings, impacting layout and above-the-fold content.
• Topic browse pages and the Where to Watch feature offer new discovery paths curated by Google, emphasizing the importance of app metadata and category alignment.
• The Engage SDK’s Collections feature introduces re-engagement surfaces outside the Play Store, with new content formats and cart abandonment prompts.
• Play Console updates improve asset management (via the Store Listing Asset Library), rollout control (Halt Release), and performance tracking with new metrics like Store Listing Opens.
• Subscription management is evolving, with add-ons, flexible grace periods, and enhanced benefit visibility aimed at reducing churn and improving retention.

More ways to tell your app’s story

Google Play’s newest updates focus on new visual and audio assets for app store listings. These changes aim to help developers better communicate their app’s purpose and value, setting clearer expectations before users hit “Install.”

Hero content carousel

Set to drop in July of this year, the hero content carousel appears to be a nod to the 2017-2018 Feature Graphic of Google Play. If you can’t remember that far back, it means that a static image will appear at the top of the store listing page. The update? The image is a slider, offering developers the chance to display three images instead of one.

Google recommends using this carousel to highlight new in-app content or top value propositions, however developers should beware this carousel will push their screenshot gallery and short descriptions down below the fold of the page first screen. It’s also unclear at this time whether any A/B testing option for this asset will be available.

YouTube playlist carousel

Also set to be launched this July, this feature allows developers to list multiple videos from their YouTube channel on their app’s Store listing page. This engaging feature has already been available for some games but during Google I/O 2025, it was announced that it would be rolled out to all apps and games.

Rules regarding what videos can be listed had already been shared at Google Playtime last year.

Audio samples

A major reveal from the Google Play session was the upcoming asset of audio samples. This feature would allow apps to showcase some of their content using a short audio example.

This feature is currently only available to Health & Wellness apps in the U.S. that declare their interest via this form. However, early testing among mediation apps showed that users who engaged with the audio sample were three times more likely to install it.

Enhanced discovery paths for your app

As the number of apps on Google Play continues to expand, Google is providing better ways for apps to stand out and appear before the right users.

Topic browse pages

Appearing in the “For You” tab of the Play Store homepage, topic browse pages are curated by Google. These interactive sections are built for app discovery and are sorted into specific themes. The goal? To help users find relevant apps faster.

Currently, topic browse pages are rolling out in the U.S. for media and entertainment apps, with plans to expand to other categories and regions in the future

Where to watch

Similarly, Google Play’s Where to watch feature provides a consolidated view of all apps that offer the specific movie or show a user has searched for.  This feature has already been rolled out to multiple countries, including the United States, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Indonesia, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, and the Philippines.

Engage SDK: Re-engagement tools via Collections

App developers are once again encouraged to integrate the Engage SDK into their apps, as Google shared more details about the Collections experience during I/O 2025. Collections is a full-screen feature, launched from a standalone widget outside Google Play.

Collections offers 3 key formats to help re-engage users:

• Continuations Journeys
• Recommendation Clusters
• Featured Clusters

With the Engage SDK, developers can create up to five personalized recommendation clusters to bring users back into the app, highlighting relevant content like trending posts or special offers. The experience supports seven user experiences: watch, listen, read, social, food, shop and travel (new).

Collections will begin rolling out across all Play markets this month, first launching in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, India, Japan, Mexico, and the UK.

Finally, Google is introducing cart abandonment reminders, also powered by the Engage SDK. These prompts will appear in the Play Store to help developers re-capture users who left the app mid-purchase.

The future of Android games: multi-platform and Play Games Services

Google also gave game developers some attention at I/O 2025, focusing on two key areas: multi-device experiences and player engagement via Play Games Services.

Multi-platform expansion to PC

Google confirmed that both play sessions and revenue tend to be higher on PC than mobile. In response, all Play Store games will now be available on PC by default, unless developers choose to opt out in the Play Console.

To support this shift, Google announced an earnback program of up to 15%, aimed at encouraging PC-first developers to bring their games to the Play Store. Google I/O also unveiled new tools designed to improve the playability of mobile games on PC.

Play Games Services levels up Achievement Quests

One of the bigger updates for game developers was the expansion of Play Games Services, Google’s equivalent of Apple’s Game Center for Android devices. Google is placing a clear emphasis on achievements as a tool for long-term engagement.

Here’s what’s new:

• Achievements will now be displayed on Play Store listing pages for games already installed.
  
• A new Play Store search filter will allow users to find games that include Achievements.
  
• Most notably, Achievement Quests are being added to the Google Play Points program, letting users earn rewards for completing in-game challenges.

Together, these changes signal Google’s intent to integrate Play Points more deeply into mobile gaming, using achievements to boost engagement, discovery, and retention.

Play Console developments: quality of life improvements

Alongside user-facing Play Store updates, Google announced several quality of life improvements to the Play Console aimed at helping developers and marketers streamline app management.

Halt Release button

A new Halt Release button allows developers to pause a staged rollout of their app before it reaches 100%. This gives teams more control in case they detect a bug or issue mid-deployment , especially useful for mitigating risks without a full rollback.

Store Listing Asset Library for custom store listings

With developers building more custom store listings, Google is improving asset management. Developers can now upload assets via Google Drive links and manage them directly in the new Store Listing Asset Library.

This is great news for marketers who now have leaner processes to upload and manage store fronts. The update significantly reduces friction for marketers managing multiple store variants, enabling faster updates and better consistency across locales or campaigns.

New Play Console metrics and section overviews

Google has officially launched two new Play Console metrics:

• Store Listing Opens: The number of times users who have installed your app, open it directly from your store listing on Google Play.
• Low-Memory Kill Rate: The percentage of daily active users who experience at least one user-perceived low memory kill (instances where the system terminates the app due to low memory when in use).

In addition, the Play Console UI has been refreshed. Now each of the four core sections—Test and Release, Monitor and Improve, Grow Users, and Monetize with Play— includes its own overview page.

These overviews help teams quickly assess performance and surface key insights — a useful change for both technical and marketing stakeholders.

Subscription and revenue improvements

A final focus from Google I/O 2025 is on improving subscription flexibility and revenue retention through updates to Google Play Billing.

While some changes involve technical improvements to the Google Pay account setup process and expanded payment methods and currencies, the more impactful updates are centered on increasing flexibility and reducing technical churn for subscriptions within the following Play Console’s subscription management tools.

Subscription add-ons

Google is introducing new options in setting up subscriptions in the Play Console that will make it easier to invite users to purchase extra features as add-ons to their base subscriptions. These make it easier to upsell extra features or content directly within the Play Console.

Grace periods and account hold extensions

Studies show that subscriptions are more likely to be retained when users are given longer grace periods or account hold durations after a payment failure. In response, Google is making it easier to manage and extend these timeframes directly within the Play Console.

Highlighting subscription benefits

To address churn caused by a lack of perceived value, Google plans to more frequently surface subscription benefits. The subscription details developers can define during subscription packages setup in the console.

Subscription benefits can be highlighted in:

• The subscription center
• Email reminders
• In-app purchase and cancellation flows

This update is to allow users to better understand what they’re paying for in order to increase retention for subscription apps.

Conclusion

Google I/O 2025 may have centered around AI, but for app marketers and ASO teams, the most actionable changes are being rolled out across the Play Store. From the introduction of new creative formats to expanded subscription tooling and improved developer workflows, these updates signal Google’s continued focus on visibility, retention, and monetization.

Now is the time to align your Google Play strategy with where the platform is heading. And with AppTweak’s app marketing intelligence platform, from store listing previews and creative asset analysis to keyword tracking, featured app monitoring, and custom store listing insights, you don’t need to wait for the rollout to get started.

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