Google announces Senior Web Developer Nanodegree, new minimum app prices and more

Google today at the Chrome Dev Summit announced quite a few changes to the way developers can utilize the Google Play Store to help grow their application and game businesses. For starters, Google is now letting devs in 17 different countries reduce the price of their paid apps, games and in-app purchases. This change will give developers more flexibility in pricing their services to better suit consumers in different areas. Here is the list of countries affected by this change, along with their new and old minimum pricing requirements:

• Brazil: R$ 0.99 (was R$2.50)
• Chile: CLP $200.00 (was CLP $500.00)
• Colombia: COP$ 800.00 (was COP$ 2000.00)
• Hungary: Ft 125.00 (was Ft 225.00)
• Indonesia: Rp 3,000.00 (was Rp 12,000.00)
• Malaysia: RM 1.00 (was RM 3.50)
• Mexico: MXN$ 5.00 (was MXN$ 9.90)
• Philippines: ₱15.00 (was ₱43.00)
• Poland: zł1.79 (was zł2.99)
• Peru: S/. 0.99 (was S/. 3.00)
• Russia: руб 15.00 (was руб 2.00)
• Saudi Arabia:﷼ 0.99 (was 2.00﷼)
• South Africa: R3.99 (was R10.00)
• Thailand: ฿10.00 (was ฿32.00)
• Turkey: ₺0.59 (was ₺2.00)
• Ukraine: ₴5.00 (was ₴8.00)
• Vietnam: ₫6,000 (was ₫21,000.00)

Last year, Google introduced a handy playbook for developers to help them grow their app and game businesses. The book, entitled “The Secrets to App Success on Google Play”, was downloaded more than 200,000 times. Today Google has released the second edition of the book, which covers all the new tools such as Store Listing Experiments, Smart Lock for Password and more. It also gives the best practices for improving the quality of your app, ways to grow a valuable audience, increase engagement and retention and more. If you’re interested in the new edition, follow the Play Store link below for the free download.

Last but certainly not least, Google has also introduced a new Senior Web Developer Nanodegree Program with Udacity. This course will teach you the tools, frameworks and techniques needed to write robust code for progressive web applications that are both secure and easy to use. If you were to spend about 10 hours per week on this course, most students will be able to earn this Nanodegree credential in about 9-12 months.

Google explains:

Along the way, [students] will also learn how to integrate new technologies, such as Service Worker and Web Components, and work extensively with Gulp and other tools. You’ll hear from Google experts, such as Ido Green, Jake Archibald (co-author of the Service Worker spec), Luke Wroblewski (author and strategist),  Paul Bakaus (Studio 5 CTO, Zynga) and Alice Boxhall (author of the Chrome accessibility developer tools).

Interested in signing up? You can do so one of two ways. The first way is the paid route, where you’ll have access to code-level project reviews and feedback, coaching, support from a cohort of peers, building a portfolio of work and career support services. The second option is free and includes the same instructional courses, quizzes and projects individually, which you can take at your own pace.

For more information on this new course and to be notified when enrollment opens, head to the link attached below.

• Learn more about the Senior Web Developer Nanodegree Program from Udacity