Launching new #WeArePlay stories from India

Posted by Parul Tyagi, Developer Marketing

Every month, over 2.5 billion people visit Google Play to discover millions of apps and games, which are created by people with all sorts of backgrounds, who founded companies big and small.

#WeArePlay celebrates this community of people building apps and games businesses, with monthly spotlights of founders from across the world.

Last summer we went on a virtual tour of the USA, sharing stories from every state, and today we’re continuing our tour across the world with our next stop: India.

To kick us off, we are spotlighting 20 stories from across the country, with many more coming throughout the year.

Moving text reads #WeArePlay INDIA Discover now g.co/play/weareplay-india Google Play

First, we begin with Pramit from Gurugram, Haryana. He was climbing the corporate ladder when medication he was taking damaged his retina, therefore losing his vision. No longer able to read, he required help from friends and family to perform daily tasks. One day, when a friend was booking a driver for him, Pramit got the idea to create a tool that could function exactly like a virtual friend through voice-activated commands. Using his app Louie Voice Control, people can operate other apps using their voice, making technology infinitely more accessible for the visually impaired.

#WeArePlay Pramit Visioapps Technology Gurugram, Haryana g.co/play/weareplay-india Google Play

Next, meet Sourav and Gunjan from Kolkata, West Bengal. When Sourav and Gunjan had their son, they noticed how fascinated he was watching videos on their phones. This gave Gunjan the idea to provide meaningful screen time for him by making educational games for young children. Fast forward to today and they have 42 apps, including Yoga for Kids where youngsters follow along with simple yoga poses and unlock animated pets as rewards.

#WeArePlay Sourav & Gunjan Gunjanapps Studios Kolkata, West Bengal g.co/play/weareplay-india Google Play

Now onto Tejas from Rajkot, Gurajat. He was always determined to go his own way in life and pursue programming, rather than his family’s construction business. After discovering how popular cooking games are, his company TheAppGuruz makes versions catered specifically for Asian audiences – with some full of Indian dishes and specialties. Now, Tejas and his team are developing more cooking simulation titles, as well as traditional board games for a global audience.

#WeArePlay Tejas TheAppGuruz Rajkot, Gujarat g.co/play/weareplay-india Google Play

And last but not least, Anshul and Rohan from Mumbai, Maharashtra. After bonding over their experiences in overcoming mental health struggles, they discovered they had the same goal: to create something in the mental wellness space. So they built Evolve – an app with guided meditations, breathing exercises and daily affirmations. During the pandemic, the pair realized the LGBTQ+ community was one of the most underserved in mental health support, so they adapted Evolve to meet their needs.

#WeArePlay Rohan &Anshul Evolve Mumbai, Maharashtra g.co/play/weareplay-india Google Play

Check out all the stories now at g.co/play/weareplay-india and stay tuned for even more coming soon.

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#WeArePlay | Meet Ania from Canada. More stories from USA, Australia and Montenegro

Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer Marketing

This International Women’s Day, we’re dedicating our latest #WeArePlay stories to the inspirational women founders creating apps and games businesses on Google Play. Like Ania from Victoria in Canada, who is making mental health support more accessible worldwide.

When Ania was a student, she started experiencing debilitating panic attacks. Realizing there wasn’t much help readily available on mobile, she took it upon herself to do her own research and learn how to manage her anxiety. After feeling more confident again, she wanted to share what she had learned and help people, so began developing Rootd.

The app provides in-the-moment relief: with lessons to understand panic attacks, breathing exercises, and ways to make short-term and long-term changes to reduce anxiety. She is growing the app’s reach by expanding to different countries, with the hope it will eventually become one of the most widely used tools to overcome panic attacks in the world.

Celebrating more women founders

Alongside Ania, there are many other women founders doing incredible work in the apps and games space: like Bria from USA – founder of Honey B Games and creator of bubble tea game Boba Story, Lauren and Christina from Australia – co-founders of Lumi Interactive and their wellbeing app Kinder World: Cozy Plants, and Jelena from Montenegro – CEO of games studio 3Hills.

Check out their stories now at g.co/play/weareplay.

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#WeArePlay | Meet Valentin from Austria. More stories from Spain, Argentina and Azerbaijan

Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer Marketing

In our first batch of #WeArePlay stories for 2023, discover the inspiring app founders sharing their knowledge with millions around the world: from cooking up the best recipes, learning better ways to stay healthy, finding the best spots for photography or sharing tips to nail that next exam.

First, we begin with Valentin from Austria. With hotelier and restaurateur parents, Valentin grew up learning about the challenges of the hospitality sector. As he was a better programmer than a cook, he decided to not join the industry. But at 22 – whilst successfully working abroad – he felt his life was lacking purpose. Valentin went back to his hometown and, after hearing his parents had troubles with hiring, created a hospitality recruitment app with co-founders Tobias and Juan. When Covid hit however, Gronda transformed into a platform for chefs to share and monetize their recipes, inspiring other culinary lovers. Next, Gronda wants to help ambitious chefs worldwide unleash their full potential.
      

Next, a few more stories from around the world:

  • Clara runs a longevity clinic in rural Valencia where people learn to live a longer, healthier life. It’s powerful knowledge and she knew it could go far beyond her little village, so with husband Juan and his university friend David, they created their company Hearts Radiant. Their app, Rosita, gives seniors long term physical and mental health plans, some spanning ten years or more.

#WeArePlay Juan Clara & David Rosita Longevity Cofrentes, Spain Google Play

  • When Noel from Argentina was traveling the world, he discovered he’d missed a beautiful viewing point in Italy. This gave him the idea for NoFilter – an app compiling the best photography spots around the world. Next, Noel wants to launch more features for customized trip planning and offer travelers options to go carbon neutral.
      #WeArePlay Noel Broda Noel Cordoba, Argentina Google Play
    • After a series of hackathons and coding all-nighters, top students Amiraslan and Orkhan launched Oxuyan (“scholar” in Azerbaijani), a platform for publishing exams and testing knowledge. Education had been a ticket to so much opportunity for Amiraslan, including studying abroad and traveling Europe, so his motivation was to make learning accessible to everyone.

    #WeArePlay Amiraslan & Orkhan Oxuyan Baku, Azerbaijan Google Play

    Check out all the stories now at g.co/play/weareplay and stay tuned for even more coming soon.

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    Enable fast pass development with Google Wallet demo mode

    Posted by Google Pay Developers team

    What is demo mode?

    We want to make it easier for you to develop and test Google Wallet passes so that you can create new, engaging experiences for your customers. Today, you can sign up in the Google Pay & Wallet Console and start using the Google Wallet API immediately in “demo mode.”

    When you sign up for a Google Wallet Issuer account for the first time, your account will be in demo mode. Demo mode includes the same features and functionality as publishing mode. However, access to issue Google Wallet passes to users is restricted to any “test users” you add in the console. While in demo mode, any user who is not included in your list of test users will not be able to add a pass you create to their Google Wallet app. By default, all administrators and developers who have access to your Issuer account are already test users. The passes created by issuers in demo mode will contain the text “[TEST ONLY]” in the top of the pass until the issuer is approved to be in publishing mode.

    While in demo mode, you can do any of the following:

    When you are in the Google Pay & Wallet Console, you will see two different indicators that your Issuer account is in demo mode.

    On the Dashboard page, the Google Wallet API integration card will include a Demo mode tag.
    Google Wallet API integration card on the console dashboard
    Figure 1 – The Google Wallet API integration card on the console dashboard
    On the Google Wallet API page, on the Manage tab, you will see a larger notice stating “You’re in demo mode,” along with additional information and a link to learn more.
    The demo mode notice on the Google Wallet API console page
    Figure 2 – The demo mode notice on the Google Wallet API console page

    How can developers use the Google Wallet API?

    It’s simple! Just follow the below steps and you’ll have access to your issuer account in demo.

    1. Create a business in the Google Pay & Wallet Console
    2. Select Google Wallet API
    3. Select Build your first pass
    4. Agree to the Google Wallet API Terms of Service

    Some additional steps differ depending on whether you use the Android SDK or Web API. Please refer to the Google Wallet Developer Documentation for these other steps. After you’ve completed the steps, you’ll be ready to create your own classes and issue passes to your test users.

    How does demo mode affect new and existing accounts?

    If you have an existing account and have requested publishing access by submitting a support request, no changes are required on your end. Your Issuer account is already in publishing mode and this will be reflected in the console.

    For new accounts, this will depend on two factors:

    • The user or service account is associated with an existing Issuer account
    • The new account is being created using the issuer.insert method or the Google Pay & Wallet Console

    No existing account

    		Existing account
    (demo mode)    		Existing account
    (publishing mode)
    ConsoleDemo mode

    		Demo modePublishing mode

    issuer.insert

    		Request fails*

    		Request fails*

    		Publishing mode

    *Note – Issuer accounts in demo mode are unable to create additional accounts using the issuer.insert method.

    How are test users managed?

    To add and/or remove test users without granting them access to your Issuer account, follow the below steps:

    1. Navigate to the Google Pay & Wallet Console
    2. Select Google Wallet API
    3. In the Manage tab, select Set up test accounts
    4. Add each test user’s Google Account email address on a separate line

    Select Update testers

    The test accounts window
    Figure 3 – The test accounts window where you can add test users

    How do developers go to publishing mode?

    When you’re ready to go to start issuing passes to real users, you will need to complete the following before you are able to request publishing access:

    • Create at least one pass class
    • Complete your business profile
    Once complete, you can submit the publishing access request form. A Google contact will reach out to you requesting screenshots of the pass classes and objects you are creating to ensure they adhere to our brand guidelines and acceptable use policy. This can take up to two business days to process. You will be notified by email when your request is approved, and your Issuer account will be converted to publishing mode. The status of your pass classes will not change, and any pass classes that are in APPROVED state will be available for issuing pass objects to users.

    Next steps

    Try creating a Generic pass class and object by following the Web or Android codelabs! In these codelabs, you will have the option to create a new Issuer account and try out demo mode. Follow @GooglePayDevs on Twitter for future updates. If you have questions, tag @GooglePayDevs and include #AskGooglePayDevs in your tweets.

    #WeArePlay | The app co-founders helping people with speech disorders

    Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer Marketing

    Anshul, Meet, and Harsh became friends while living and working together. They never realised Meet used to stutter until he explained he taught himself speech therapy exercises to overcome the disorder. This motivated the trio to found their company Stamurai Speech Therapy, creating an app to help thousands of people just like Meet. Their inspirational story becomes our latest to be featured in #WeArePlay, our campaign celebrating the people behind apps and games around the world.

    “Stuttering had a huge impact on me since I was a kid”, explains Meet. “It affected my professional and personal life. I decided to look for help as it is not only a speech disorder, it is an emotional disorder as well”. 

    After hours of studying medical books and practicing therapies, he learned how to manage stuttering and grow his confidence to complete seemingly simple tasks which previously made him anxious. 

    “I avoided ordering my favorite food, going shopping and talking to strangers. These speech exercises allowed me to do things that seemed simple for some, but were a struggle to me”.
    Meet, co-founder of Stamurai Speech Therapy
    They realized there was a gap in the market for people to easily find help to manage disorders like his. Having a background in coding for Android, they got to work and created their app Stamurai Stuttering Therapy on Google Play.

    Now available in 150 countries, they’re looking to the future as they begin working on adding more languages and more exercises. The positive impact the app is having spurs them on – “we like reading the reviews to see how the app has changed people’s lives. Some are simply commenting they are now doing job interviews. This was something that could be a struggle for many”.

    Check out all the stories now at g.co/play/weareplay and stay tuned for even more coming soon.

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    #WeArePlay | Discover what inspired 4 game creators around the world

    Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer Marketing

    From exploring the great outdoors to getting your first computer – a seemingly random moment in your life might one day be the very thing which inspires you to go out there and follow your dreams. That’s what happened to four game studio founders featured in our latest release of #WeArePlay stories. Find out what inspired them to create games which are entertaining millions around the globe.

    Born and raised in Salvador, Brazil, Filipe was so inspired by the city’s cultural heritage that he studied History before becoming a teacher. One day, he realised games could be a powerful medium to share Brazilian history and culture with the world. So he founded Aoca Game Lab, and their first title, ÁRIDA: Backland’s Awakening, is a survival game based in the historic town of Canudos. Aoca Game Lab took part in the Indie Games Accelerator and have also been selected to receive the Indie Games Fund. With the help from these Google Play programs, they will take the game and studio to the next level.
    #WeArePlay Marko Peaskel Nis, Serbia
    Next, Marko from Serbia. As a chemistry student, he was never really interested in tech – then he received his first computer and everything changed. He quit his degree to focus on his new passion and now owns his successful studio Peaksel with over 480 million downloads. One of their most popular titles is 100 Doors Games: School Escape, with over 100 levels to challenge the minds of even the most experienced players.
    #WeArePlay Liene Roadgames Riga Latvia
    And now onto Liene from Latvia. She often braves the big outdoors and discovers what nature has to offer – so much so that she organizes team-building, orienteering based games for the team at work. Seeing their joy as they explore the world around them inspired her to create Roadgames. It guides players through adventurous scavenger hunts, discovering new terrain.
    #WeArePlay Xin Savy Soda Melbourne, Australia
    And lastly, Xin from Australia. After years working in corporate tech, he gave it all up to pursue his dream of making mobile games inspired by the 90’s video games he played as a child. Now he owns his studio, Pixel Starships, and despite all his success with millions of downloads, his five-year-old child gives him plenty of feedback.

    Check out all the stories now at g.co/play/weareplay and stay tuned for even more coming soon.

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    #WeArePlay Xin Savy Soda Melbourne, Australia Google Play g.co/play/weareplay

    #WeArePlay | Meet app founders helping people around the world

    Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer Marketing

    There are millions of apps available on Google Play, created by thousands of founders across the world. Each single app is unique and special in its own right, but they all have one thing in common – their purpose is to help. From helping motorhome enthusiasts find somewhere to camp, small business owners manage their finances or waste pickers make a reliable income – in this latest batch of #WeArePlay stories, we celebrate app founders who are helping people across the world in extraordinarily different ways.

    First we begin with Cristian. Originally from Villa Rica in southern Chile, he made his family very proud by being the first to go to university. During his studies in Santiago, he learned about the local waste pickers – people who make an income by searching through trash cans and finding valuable materials to sell. Despite his mother’s wishes, he was so motivated to help them that he dropped out of university and dedicated all his time to creating an app. Reciclapp works by helping waste pickers connect with local businesses, so they can collect resellable materials directly from them. So far, the app has helped waste pickers across the city save time and guarantee a more reliable income. As Cristian has grown his company to a team of 12 and expanded into Mexico, his mother is now very proud of his bravery and success.

    Next, Kennedy and Duke. When they were children, their father’s business sadly failed because managing his finances and tracking spending was too hard. Years later, after a successful career abroad in tech, Kennedy decided it was time to return to his homeland of Nigeria and build his own company. Inspired by his father’s struggle, he partnered with brother Duke and travelled across the country to interview other business owners about their financial struggles. Using this research, they created Kippa – the app simplifies bookkeeping to make sending invoices, storing receipts and setting up a bank account easy. It’s now used by over half a million businesses in Nigeria, as Kennedy mentions “without Google Play, we couldn’t help as many business owners”.

    To round up today, Gijs and Eefje. The couple adore renting campervans and travelling around to explore the natural beauty of Europe, but they always seemed to struggle with one thing – easily finding places to stay. Feeling like nothing out there could help them, they decided to give app development a go and create Campy. The app works as a digital camping encyclopaedia: helping like-minded campervan enthusiasts discover the perfect spots to set up camp, plan their trips and meet others who love the outdoors. A few years after Campy launched, Gijs and Eefje now have 2 little girls to bring on their big adventures, and are elated with the feedback they have received – “it never ceases to amaze me what a tiny app can do for so many people”.

    Check out all the stories from around the world at g.co/play/weareplay and stay tuned for more coming soon.

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    #WeArePlay | Meet George from the UK. More stories from Croatia, USA and Kenya.

    Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer Marketing

    Our celebration of app and game businesses continues with more #WeArePlay stories. Today, we’re starting with George from Bristol, UK – a young entrepreneur taking the streetwear industry by storm.

    After spending hours and hours searching for the latest styles in sneakers and streetwear, George realised there’s a market in helping fellow enthusiasts find the latest drops. At just 16 years old, he took it upon himself to learn to code and created his app, Droplist. It points people to upcoming special collections from major labels around the world. Find out more about his story.

    Today we also spotlight few more stories from around the world:

    • Anica and Kristijan from an island in Croatia – founders of Dub Studio Productions to help music lovers around the global turn up the bass or lower the treble on their favourite songs.

    • Robert from Wyoming, founder of Bluebird Languages – language learning apps with over 6 million hours of audio lessons spanning 164 languages, from Hungarian to Haitian Creole.

    • And one more new story – because why not! This time, featuring Annabel from Kenya. After struggling to find a mechanic when stuck on the roadside in Nairobi, she and her co-founder created Ziada to help people find local service providers.

    Check out all the stories now at g.co/play/weareplay and stay tuned for even more coming soon.

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    #WeArePlay | Meet Melissa from BringFido in South Carolina. More stories from Japan, India & France.

    Posted by Leticia Lago, Developer Marketing

    We’re back with more #WeArePlay stories to celebrate you: the global community of people behind apps and games businesses.

    Following last week’s “virtual roadtrip” of all of the US, today we’re kicking off with Melissa from Greenville, South Carolina. She’s on a mission to make the world a more pet-friendly place. Her app, BringFido, helps people find somewhere to stay, eat or visit with their furry friends. In this film you will meet her, her dogs Ace and Roxy, and hear how she went from idea, to website, to growing app and thriving business.

    This week we are also introducing you to game founders from other parts of the world:

    • Arnaud, an AI-enthusiast from Chartres in France, who founded Elokence. This 12-people team created Akinator, which has been downloaded over 260 million times on Google Play.
    • Daigo, a creative indie from Japan, founder of Odencat, whose games have won multiple accolades.
    • Keerti and Kashyap, a cricket-loving couple from Hyderabad in India, who used their life savings to start Hitwicket Cricket Games. Millions of fans worldwide enjoy their games.

    Check out all the stories now at g.co/play/weareplay and stay tuned for even more coming soon.

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    #WeArePlay | Discover the people building apps & games businesses

    Posted by Patricia Correa, Director, Global Developer Marketing

    Over 2.5 billion people come to Google Play every month to find apps and games created by millions of businesses from all over the world.

    #WeArePlay celebrates you: the global community of people behind these businesses.

    Each one of you creating an app or game has a different story to tell. Some of you have been coders since childhood, others are newbies who got into tech later in life. Some of you are based in busy cities, others in smaller towns. No matter who you are or how different your story is, you all have one thing in common – you have the passion to turn an idea into a business impacting people all over the world.

    Now, and over the coming months, #WeArePlay celebrates you by sharing your stories.

    We are kicking off the series with the story of Yvonne and Alyssa, the London-based mother and daughter duo who created Frobelles – a dress up game increasing representation of African and Caribbean hair styles.

    You can now also discover the stories of friends Ronaldo, Carlos and Thadeu from Hand Talk Translator (Brazil – my home country!), art lover Zuzanna from DailyArt (Poland) and travel-loving couple Ina & Jonas from TravelSpend (Germany).

    To all apps and games businesses – thank you for being a part of the Google Play community. Your dedication and ambition is helping millions of people learn, connect, relax, exercise, find jobs, give back, laugh, have fun, escape to fantasy lands, and so much more.

    Read more and stay tuned for many more stories at g.co/play/weareplay

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    Make Payments with Google Pay and Firebase

    Posted by Stephen McDonald, Developer Relations Engineer, Google Pay

    Connect Multiple Payment Gateways with Google Pay and Firebase

    We recently launched a series of open source samples demonstrating the server-side integration between Google Pay and a variety of Payment Service Providers (PSPs). These samples also show how to create a unified interface for integrating multiple PSPs, making integrations as easy as possible by reducing the time investment in integrating multiple APIs and client libraries.

    A recent study by 451 Research showed that for merchants with over 50% of sales occurring online, 69% of them used multiple PSPs. We first demonstrated with the aforementioned samples how you can implement a consistent interface to multiple PSPs, streamlining your codebase while also providing more flexibility for the future. We’ve now taken this one step further and brought this unified PSP interface to the Firebase platform, by way of a Firebase Extension for Google Pay, making it easier than ever to integrate Google Pay with one or more PSPs.

    Google Pay Firebase Extension

    Firebase Extensions are open source pre-packaged bundles of code that developers can easily pull into their apps, and are designed to increase productivity, and provide extended functionality to your apps without the need to research, write, or debug code on your own. Following this line, the Google Pay Firebase Extension brings the unified PSP interface to developers’ Firebase apps.

    With the Google Pay Firebase Extension installed, you can pass a payment token from the Google Pay API to your Cloud Firestore database. The extension will listen for a request written to the path defined during installation, and then send the request to the PSP’s API. It will then write the response back to the same Firestore node.

    Open Source

    Like all Firebase Extensions, the Google Pay Firebase Extension is entirely open source, so you can modify the code yourself to change the functionality as you see fit, or even contribute your changes back via pull requests – the sky’s the limit.

    Furthermore, as the extension is backed by the aforementioned PSP samples project, the same set of PSPs are supported. Want to see your favorite PSP supported? Head on over to the PSP samples project which contains instructions for adding it.

    Summing it up

    Whether you’re new to Google Pay or Firebase, or an existing user of either, the new Google Pay extension is designed to save you even more time and effort when integrating Google Pay and any number of Payment Service Providers with your application.

    Get started with the extension today in the Firebase console.

    What do you think? Follow us on Twitter for the latest updates @GooglePayDevs

    Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comments below or tweet using #AskGooglePayDevs.

    Easily connect Google Pay with your preferred payment processor

    Posted by Stephen McDonald, Developer Relations Engineer, Google Pay

    Easily connect Google Pay with your preferred payment processor

    Adding Google Pay as a payment method to your website or Android application provides a secure and fast checkout option for your users. To enable Google Pay, you will first need a Payment Service Provider (PSP). For the integration this means understanding how your payments processing stack works with Google Pay APIs.

    End-to-end PSP samples

    To make integration easier, we’ve launched a new open source project containing end-to-end samples for a range of PSPs, demonstrating the entire integration process – from client-side configuration, to server-side integration with the PSPs, using their respective APIs and client libraries where applicable. The project uses Node.js and is written in JavaScript, which most developers should find familiar. Each of the samples in the project are implemented in a consistent fashion, and demonstrate best practices for integrating Google Pay and your preferred PSP with your website or Android application.

    A recent study by 451 Research showed that for merchants with over 50% of sales occurring online, 69% of merchants used multiple PSPs. With these new samples, we demonstrate how you can implement an entirely consistent interface to multiple PSPs, streamlining your codebase while also providing more flexibility for the future.

    Lastly, we’ve also added support to both the Web and Android Google Pay sample applications, making it easy to demonstrate the new PSP samples. Simply run the PSP samples project, and configure the Web or Android samples to send their cart information and Google Pay token to the PSP samples app, which will then send the relevant data to the PSP’s API and return the PSP’s response back.

    Initial PSPs

    To start with, we’ve included support for 6 popular PSPs: Adyen, Braintree, Checkout.com, Cybersource, Square, and Stripe. But that’s just the beginning. If you’re involved with a PSP that isn’t yet included, we’ve made adding new PSPs to the open source project as simple as possible. Just head on over to the GitHub repository which contains instructions on contributing your preferred PSP to the project.

    Launching Google Pay for your website

    When you’ve completed your testing, submit your website integration in the Google Pay Business Console. You will need to provide your website’s URL and screenshots to complete the submission.

    Summing it up

    Integrating Google Pay into your website is a great way to increase conversions and to improve the purchasing experience for your customers, and with these new open source samples, the process is even easier.

    What do you think? Follow us on Twitter for the latest updates @GooglePayDevs

    Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comments below or tweet using #AskGooglePayDevs.