In May last year, Google announced that it was shuttering its top developer program. This decision was informed by the need to recognize individual applications instead of the developer/development house since that tended to be dominated by the big well-funded developers/studios who keep churning out app after another and capitalizing on their big financial muscle for traction. In the process, apps from indie developers and small studios that were excellent and a hit with users either risked being pushed into oblivion or had been sidelined.
As a result, in mid-2017 we got Android Excellence Awards. The Android Excellence Awards were to recognize the highest quality applications and games on the Google Play Store. Apps and games that delivered “incredible user experiences on Android” and had “great design, technical performance, localization, or device optimization.”
The first batch of apps and games to be awarded in the the Android Excellence Awards last year when the program rolled out included my personal favourites like Riptide GP: Renegade (heck, I even play it on the PlayStation 4) and the obvious like Pocket and Evernote.
Now, Google is back with an early 2018 list of new entrants to the coveted club. They are:
| New Android Excellence apps | New Android Excellence games |
| 1Tap | Agent A |
| Acorns | Bit Heroes |
| Airbnb | Bloons Supermonkey 2 |
| Blink Health | Dancing Line |
| Blinkist | DEAD WARFARE: Zombie |
| Clue | Dragon Project |
| Ditty | Fire Emblem Heroes |
| EyeEm | Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow |
| Fabulous | Idle Heroes |
| IFTTT | Last Day on Earth: Survival |
| iReader | Lords Mobile |
| Journey | Lumino City |
| KKBOX | Modern Combat Versus |
| Old Man's Journey | |
| Mobills: Budget Planner | The Walking Dead No Man's Land |
| Musixmatch | War Wings |
| Shpock | |
| Stocard | |
| Video Editor | |
| ViewRanger | |
| YAZIO | |
| YOP | |
Google recognizes Android apps and their developers throughout the year using several other programs in addition to the Android Excellence Awards. These include the Editor’s Choice section on the Play Store, the Google Play Awards it hands out at its annual developer conference (Google I/O) and the Best Apps of [insert year here] list it releases every December.
