Google Play promotional content (LiveOps): events, offers and featuring
Google Play promotional content (also known as LiveOps) lets games and eligible apps publish time-bound offers, events and major updates that appear on the store listing, in search results and in the Apps or Games tab, submitted up to 60 days ahead, reviewed in up to four days and run for up to four weeks.
Promotional content is Google Play's place for news inside your app: a sale, a weekend tournament, a big new feature. You create it in Play Console, and Google Play shows it on your store listing and, depending on eligibility and featuring, on the Apps or Games tab, the Events tab and in search results. Many developers call it LiveOps.
Last checked on 5 November 2026 against Play Console Help.
What is Google Play promotional content and who can use it?
Promotional content is a self-service Play Console tool for showing fresh, time-bound content to users outside your app: to bring them back, drive offers or attract new users.
Eligibility differs for apps and games:
- Games: promotional content is available for all games.
- Apps: available for apps that meet Google's eligibility criteria for Premium growth tools.
- Featuring, deep links and audience targeting: available to apps and games that meet the Premium growth tools criteria.
Where it appears: the Apps or Games tab, the Events tab, search results and your store listing. The Events tab exists only for games and only in some countries; Google lists Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan, Türkiye, the UK and the US. By default, every approved event shows on your store listing.
What types of promotional content are there?
You must pick the right type; Google says misclassified content may have limited visibility.
| Type | Subtypes | Example (Google's) |
|---|---|---|
| Offers | Discounts, value-adds, free-of-charge rewards, subscription trials | "20% off your first order", "Free 7-day trial" |
| Time-limited events | Real-time, competitions or challenges, special | A tournament, a live-streamed sporting event, a crossover event |
| Major updates | New features and announcements, new content, pre-registration announcements | New levels in a game, new movies in a streaming app |
Promotional content must be new, noteworthy and user-facing. Google rejects promotions for general service descriptions, evergreen content or routine events, and the event must be running in the app at the same time.
When should you submit promotional content?
Plan backwards from the start date. These are the timing rules in Play Console Help:
| Rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Earliest submission | 60 days before the start date |
| Review time | Up to four days; submit at least four days before the start |
| Featuring requested | Submit at least 14 days before the start |
| Maximum duration | Four weeks; Google's FAQ adds that time-limited events must end within 30 days of the start |
| Major update duration | Set at 28 days |
| Pre-registration announcement duration | Set at one week |
| Preview before start | Up to 14 days, so users can ask to be notified; on by default; not available for offers |
| Multi-country start dates | All within the same calendar quarter; one event uses one quota item |
| After submitting | The event can no longer be edited |
A simple calendar for an event that starts on day 0:
- Day −60 to −30: create the event and prepare text and images in every target language.
- Day −14 at the latest: submit if you want to request featuring.
- Day −14 to day 0: preview window, if you keep the preview on.
- Day −4 at the latest: submit if you are not requesting featuring.
- Day 0: the event must be live in the app at the same time.
How do you create a promotional content event?
- Go to Grow users → Store presence → Promotional content and click Create Event.
- Add event information: an internal event name, the event type, countries or regions, start and end date and time, the preview option and the audience.
- Choose the audience: everyone, potential users (never installed from Play), or a specific audience such as churned users, lapsed users (no open in 28 days), non-buyers, one-time buyers, repeat buyers, lapsed buyers (no purchase in 180 days) or a custom audience. Buyer-state options only work with purchases made through Google Play billing.
- Optionally add a deep link to send users to the exact place in your app.
- Request featuring if you are eligible and have requests left.
- Add the tagline, description and images (and optionally an animation and a video).
- Localize with Manage translations → Manage your own translations. Events are shown only to users whose country and language match a description you provided.
- Click Submit event, or Save as draft. You cannot edit an event after you submit it.
How does featuring work and how many requests do you get?
Featuring places your app or event on high-visibility areas of Google Play, including the homepage and search results. Both the app and the event content must meet Google's quality guidelines, and featuring is still not guaranteed. Requests reset at the start of each quarter:
| Audience of the event | Games | Apps |
|---|---|---|
| Broad (all users or potential users) | 4 featuring requests per quarter | Up to 6 featuring slots per quarter |
| Specific audience | 2 featuring requests per quarter | 2 featuring requests per quarter |
A request is used only when you asked for featuring, the event starts in the current quarter and it is submitted, not a draft. Cancelling before the start returns it. You can create as many events as you like without requesting featuring. Eligible events may also be picked for the "Spotlight" format, a full-width placement at the top of Apps Home; for that the tagline must be 48 characters or fewer in single-byte languages (23 in double-byte languages such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean).
What are the text and image rules?
Google's content quality guidelines are strict, and wrong-language text is a common reason for rejection:
- Tagline: up to 80 characters, says clearly what the event or offer is; for offers, the value appears in the first 40 characters. No line breaks, no generic text like "Weekly event".
- Description: up to 500 characters (Google recommends at least 100). Explains the benefit and how to take part; no bullet points, no repeat of the tagline, no general app description.
- Text style: no more than one "!" or "?" in a row, no sequences of special characters, no HTML tags, no ALL CAPS except acronyms, coupon codes or a brand styled that way.
- Primary image: 1920 × 1080, 16:9, JPG or 24-bit PNG, with no text (no logo, slogan or event name) and key elements inside the safe zone. A square image is also required.
- Video: highly recommended; a public YouTube video with monetization turned off.
- Uniqueness: no reused images, taglines or descriptions from other events, and no identical or very similar events live at the same time.
How does Google Play promotional content compare with App Store in-app events?
| Google Play promotional content | App Store in-app events | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can use it | All games; apps that meet Premium growth tools criteria | No separate eligibility tier described |
| Types | Offers, time-limited events, major updates | Badges: Challenge, Competition, Live Event, Major Update, New Season, Premiere, Special Event |
| How many | No total limit stated; featuring requests limited per quarter | Up to 10 published at once, 15 approved per app |
| Longest event | Four weeks | 31 days |
| Shortest event | Not stated | 15 minutes |
| Shown before start | Preview up to 14 days | Published up to 14 days before start |
| Earliest submission | 60 days before start | Not stated |
| Review | Up to four days | Must be approved by App Review |
| Regional start times | All within the same calendar quarter | All within 48 hours of each other |
| Main text | Tagline 80, description 500 characters | Event name 30, short description 50, long description 120 characters |
| Audience targeting | Everyone, potential users, user and buyer states, custom audiences | Not covered in the help page used here |
The in-app events guide covers Apple's side step by step.
How Uptika helps
Uptika has no event calendar. What it can show is the effect of an event on the store. The free Chart Movers tool lists each day's category top 10, climbers and new entrants, so you can see whether a rival's event moved them. The free Keyword radar records your Google Play rank for each keyword every day, so you can compare the weeks before, during and after your event. On the Starter plan, Alerts send a message to Slack, Discord, Telegram, a webhook or your phone when your ranks or rating move. Start with the store listing guide and keep an eye on Android vitals before a big update. Start free.
Questions
What is Google Play promotional content?
It is a self-service Play Console tool for showcasing timely content, such as special offers, limited-time events and major updates. It appears across the Play Store, including the Apps or Games tab, the Events tab (games, in some countries), search results and your store listing. It is available for all games and for apps that meet Google's eligibility criteria for Premium growth tools.
How early should I submit a promotional content event?
You can submit it at the earliest 60 days before the start date. Approval can take up to four days, so submit at least four days ahead, and at least 14 days ahead if you request featuring.
How do I request featuring for a Play event?
If your app is eligible and has featuring requests left for the quarter, turn on the featuring request while creating the event and submit it at least 14 days before the start date. Apps get up to 6 featuring slots per quarter for events targeting a broad audience and 2 for a specific audience; featuring is never guaranteed.
What content types does Play promotional content support?
Three types: offers (discounts, value-adds, free rewards, subscription trials), time-limited events (real-time, competitions or challenges, special events) and major updates (new features and announcements, new content, pre-registration announcements). Misclassified content may get limited visibility.