When you enroll in the external offers program, you will be able to select which service tier you want for your app in each country. By default, developers enrolled in the program will receive both Tier 1 and Tier 2 service. The table below summarizes the feature differences between Tier 1 and Tier 2 service in more detail. Additional Play Console features not listed below may be unavailable in Tier 1 service. As a reminder, when changing from Tier 2 to Tier 1 service, Tier 2 service fees apply to the existing users you have at the time of switching for a 6 month ramp-off period.
Ongoing service features
Store experience
How a developer’s app appears in the Play Store
| Feature | Tier 1 | Tier 1 + Tier 2 | Additional tier 1 details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Key app details, age ratings, and compliance information |
✔ | ✔ |
- |
|
| App can appear in exact search match | ✔ | ✔ | Your app will appear in search results with a content rating and no additional badges in tier 1 countries. | |
| App can appear in all search results |
|
✔ |
- |
|
| App can appear in discovery, recommendation, and editorial surfaces | ✔ |
- |
||
| Enhanced store listing experience The full Play Store listing experience, with additional information to help users better understand the app |
✔ | - | ||
User trust and safety
| Feature | Tier 1 | Tier 1 + Tier 2 | Additional tier 1 details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malware and vulnerability scanning | ✔ | ✔ |
- |
|
| On-device protection | ✔ | ✔ | - | |
| Developer verification |
✔ |
✔ |
- |
|
| Content rating | ✔ | ✔ |
- |
|
| Data safety information | ✔ | ✔ | - | |
| Play SDK Index and SDK issue alerts for app developers | ✔ | ✔ | - | |
Test and release
Tools to manage the distribution of a developer’s app
| Feature | Tier 1 | Tier 1 + Tier 2 | Additional tier 1 details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Production releases and automatic app updates subject to quota | ✔ | N/A | You can use automatic updates for up to 4 production releases per year. Automatic updates allow your releases to be automatically installed on users' devices without users needing to manually update. | |
| Production releases and unlimited automatic app updates | ✔ | - | ||
| Standard app reviews |
✔ |
✔ |
- |
|
| Device block list and country targeting | ✔ | ✔ |
- |
|
|
Install reports Basic reporting about an app's install base |
✔ | ✔ | Install base data (the number of active devices on which your app is installed) for your production releases will be available for tier 1 countries. | |
| Advanced device targeting rules | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| App size report | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| Test releases and pre-launch reports | ✔ | |||
| Automatic app bundle optimizations | ✔ | Your app will be distributed as a universal APK to users in tier 1 countries. | ||
| Deeplinks management | ✔ | - | ||
| Remotely triggered in-app updates | ✔ | When you use remotely triggered in-app updates, no in-app update will be triggered for users in tier 1 countries. | ||
|
All of Play's advanced reporting capabilities |
✔ | Data from users in tier 1 countries will be excluded from app reports other than install base reporting for your production release. | ||
Monitor and improve
Reporting and insights to help a developer manage their app
| Feature | Tier 1 | Tier 1 + Tier 2 | Additional tier 1 details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic crash reporting | ✔ | ✔ | Crashes and ANR data for your production releases will be available for tier 1 countries. | |
| Android vitals | ✔ | - | ||
| Reach and device insights |
|
✔ |
- |
|
Grow users
Advanced tools to reach and engage with users
| Feature | Tier 1 | Tier 1 + Tier 2 | Additional tier 1 details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-registration | ✔ | Users in tier 1 markets will not see the option to pre-register. | ||
| Custom store listings | ✔ | Custom store listings that target tier 1 countries will not be served. Users in these countries will see your default listing instead. | ||
| Store listing experiments |
|
✔ | Store listing experiments set up in tier 1 countries will not run. | |
| Promotional content and YouTube videos | ✔ | Events and videos will not run in tier 1 countries. | ||
| Ratings and reviews analysis | ✔ | - | ||
| Reply to reviews | ✔ | - | ||
| Advanced acquisition reports | ✔ | Data from users in tier 1 countries will be excluded from acquisition reports. | ||
Other business services
Additional features for distributing apps and managing publishing
| Feature | Tier 1 | Tier 1 + Tier 2 | Additional tier 1 details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Play app signing | ✔ | ✔ | - | |
| Automatic abuse protection |
|
✔ | When automatic protection is turned on, your app will be distributed without automatic protection to users in tier 1 countries. | |
| Play integrity abuse detection | ✔ | Once your app exceeds 10K requests in a day, all API requests in tier 1 countries will return a TOO_MANY_REQUESTS error. | ||
| Play in-app SDKs (including asset delivery, engage, feature delivery, in-app reviews, in-app updates) |
✔ | API requests in tier 1 countries will return an API_NOT_AVAILABLE error. | ||
| Play Game Services | ✔ | API requests in tier 1 countries will return an API_NOT_AVAILABLE error. | ||
| Play Console APIs | ✔ | You cannot publish releases to tier 1 countries only, request reporting data for tier 1 countries, or reply to reviews in tier 1 countries. | ||