Google Play news: New accounts must test apps with 20 people for 2 weeks before applying for production access.
TLDR;
- Meant to stop fraud and abuse, ensure higher-quality apps in the store
- From 0 days (immediately publish) to 14 days to get a new app into production
- Personal accounts only (hobbyists, students, semi-pro devs), not organization accounts (businesses)
- Hinting at slower app review times
My take:
This will irritate developers, but their reasoning is fair (combating abuse/fraudulent apps) and it's a good thing to push devs to test their apps more and with real users. Of course, some will find ways around this but that's to their app's detriment.
Like launching on the App Store, devs will need to plan their launches carefully to ensure wiggle room if the app is rejected. Thankfully, this doesn't affect business accounts, just hobbyists.
The mention of slower app review times is a bit concerning. The speed and ease of shipping new and updated Android apps has always been a pro over the Apple App Store processes. That said, check out
@useappflow's Live Updates feature to bypass review times if needed!