Developers
If you've built great apps designed for kids or families, the family discovery experience on Google Play is a great way to surface them to parents.
Developers are invited to opt-in these apps and games to the new Designed for Families program. Apps that meet the program requirements will be featured through Google Play's family-friendly browse and search experiences so that parents can find suitable, trusted, high-quality apps and games more easily.
Opt-in your apps and games to Designed for Families from the All Applications page in the Developer Console, under Pricing and Distribution. For more information on opting-in, visit the Google Play Developer Help Center.
Benefits
New browsing categories give you improved visibility to parents.
Designed for Families expands the visibility of your family content on Google Play, helping parents easily find your family-friendly apps and games throughout the store. And new features create a trusted environment that empowers parents to make informed decisions and engage with your content.
Search
Only apps and games opted-in to the Designed for Families program will show up in searches initiated from the Family section in Apps Home. They’ll also be more visible when users search for family or kid related content from anywhere in the Play store.
Browse
The Family star button on Apps and Games Home points to an enhanced discovery experience for parents looking for family appropriate content. The new Family section includes uniquely merchandised content, new categories, and age-based browsing. Participating apps will receive this additional visibility on top of their existing categories, rankings, and reviews elsewhere on the Google Play store.
Character pages
Character pages let parents discover your content based on familiar brands and characters.
Parents can now discover content for popular characters from around the globe in one place, including apps, games, movies, tv shows, books, and even music. This provides a powerful way for parents to discover content from familiar brands and beloved characters, and allows you to reach a highly relevant and targeted audience.
Merchandising
The family sections include their own merchandised collections. The themed collections on these pages are curated to ensure quality and limited only to content accepted into the Designed for Families program.
Badging
Apps participating in Designed for Families are marked with the family star badge, which reflects the target age you select for your apps and serves as a signal of quality for parents.
Participating apps are marked with the family star badge.
Eligibility
The Designed for Families program is designed to be inclusive of apps that are made for kids as well as those that can be enjoyed by the entire family. General audience apps that have no specific benefit or relevance for audiences under the age of thirteen will not be accepted into the program. To participate, there are specific guidelines and policies your apps need to meet, which are assessed in an app content review.
Make sure that you're familiar with the policies that your app must comply with. These include content policies, the Developer Distribution Agreement, and the Designed for Families DDA Addendum.
Your app must also meet the Designed for Families program requirements.
Opt-in and FAQs
To learn how to opt-in and find more details about the program, visit the Google Play Developer Help Center.
Stay in Touch
If you'd like to receive occasional emails with news relating to the Designed for Families program and Google Play opportunities, sign up using the Designed for Families Interest Form
Find Success with the Family Playbook
Read our developer guide, "The Family Playbook", to get tips on how to succeed with family and kid-focused apps and games on Google Play.
The Family Playbook is a companion guide to The Secrets to App Success on Google Play and includes best practices and advice from other developers to help you tailor your apps for families and kids in order to provide high quality, age-appropriate content.
You can also download the pdf.
We’d love to hear your feedback so we can continue to improve our developer resources, please let us know what you think.