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Android Market update details – Newest email sent by the Android Market Team

As you may have read elsewhere the Android Market is set to get updated, including an outage for developers regarding the back-end starting Thursday, November 18th, 2010 at 10PM and ending Friday, November 19th, 2010 at 4AM PST. Well a new email just hit my inbox from the Android Market Team officially laying out the details of the update so far.

Without further delay on my part, here is the official email from the Android Market Team:

We’re writing to inform you about some changes to Android Market that require your attention.

First, we have added support for a recent changes feature, which allows you to add notes about changes specific to the newest version of your application. You are able to submit these from the Developer Console, similar to descriptions. In the Market app, these notes will appear under the app description as as “Recent changes.”

Second, there is now a ‘draft upload’ capability for application updates. This feature enables you to edit your app listing and upload a new version without affecting the version live in Market. Your app listing edits will not change your live listing until you select “Publish.”

Finally, we are adding support for larger promotional graphics to showcase your application. In addition to the currently required app screenshot, you will be required to upload one “feature” graphic. Supported promotional assets will now include:
– A “feature” graphic, landscape aspect ratio, 1024 x 500 (required).
– A high-res icon, 512 x 512 (required)..  The Android icon design guidelines located at http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/icon_design.html apply.
– 2 screen shots, 320w x 480h, 480w x 854h, or 480w x 800h, increasing to 8 screen shots in the future (1 required).
– A link for a promotional video hosted on YouTube (optional).

Thanks, and we look forward to continue working with you on Android Market.

Regards,
The Android Market Team

While most of this has been reported elsewhere already, it’s good to see official word on it. Up to 8 screen shots is pretty interesting and new information. It is also good to see the Android Market receiving much needed updates including more media support. It is one thing I’ve always mentioned, to be successful you need to have screenshots etc etc for your game, the support of YouTube videos is a nice bonus.

I mentioned that these are the updates so far because lots of other Android sites are thinking the outage coming up is even more updates to the market in preparation for Gingerbread, possibly a web-based storefront and more. It’ll be interesting to see what comes of it.

On a side note, this is the third email I’ve received in less then 24 hours regarding the Android Market and updates from the Android Market Team. That’s a hell of a lot.

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