Android Product Rewards Revealed By Google

As of this week there's a sort-of new way in which mobile apps are making users do work. It's a rewards program, given to developers to make the most out of users who wouldn't otherwise be coughing up cash for the games they play. Now developers can get money three official ways: App sales, subscriptions, and product rewards. But wait, wasn't that already a feature?

Giving users rewards for watching advertisements isn't new. That sort of trade has been going on for quite a few years. Back in the day, the cool thing to do was to offer rewards for downloading additional apps. Now, it would seem, Google's finally gotten serious about this unique way in which to make cheapskates beefcake their way to profit.

The first way in which Google's pushing this rewards program is with video advertisements. Users playing games will be given the opportunity to watch the entirety of a video add. If they watch this ad video, they'll be given an in-game reward. Like... coins or something.

In this way, users don't feel like they're being forced to endure ads – banners, pop-ups, and etcetera. They'll also be more engaged than they would otherwise have been – since they're far more willing to sit through the entire video.

If you're a developer – or an everyday average app user who is also curious like a cat – there's a new Google Play support entry for those users on the back end. At its base, this is an advertisement program. On a higher level, it's a less-direct way of getting developers payed for the work they've done, from users that might not otherwise provide a cent.

Now that this program is implemented in Beta, it'll soon head to the public (once it's finalized), and we'll see more ad-earned rewards in apps as such. Again, they've been around before, it's just that now, Google's made it official, so they'll probably be more prevalent in apps and games of many sorts.