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tutorials web
blogpush notifications have a terrible reputation but if done well can give your users a positive experience. you know that thing where you go to a web site then, before you can do anything, you have to acknowledge the push notification request. do you hate that? yeah, me too. jo franchetti even wrote an entire article about the crisis of websites bombarding people with permission requests and dialogs when they first arrive on the page. a crisis of permissions that’s just one of the many ways it’s easy to upset your users with push notifications, this article will try to detail some ways to do them better. a bad example of requesting for push notifications on first load failing before you even begin push notifications on the web are one of the most maligned apis on the web and this is one of the reasons why. it’s possible to give a bad impression before you even send a single notification. just like you wouldn’t ask to move in with someone on the first date, do not ask to send notifications on the very first user engagement. assume your users do not want push notifications. prove the worth of your web app with it’s high quality information and delightful user experience. make the users want push notification before you prompt them, the best way to do this is to have a checkbox to enable push notifications in context. this makes it clear not only what the push notification request is for but how they can turn them off when they do not want them. in this example app users can turn on notifications for particular information channels with the “notify me on updates” checkbox: if they check the checkbox then we will call pushmanager.subscribe() which will prompt the user to enable notifications. the users are more likely to enable push notifications because they chose to be prompted through their own intuition. on a related note app install banners: in some browsers, app install banners, pop up in a similar way to poorly done notification requests. it is not in response to a user action and are unrelated to your app’s content and not part of your apps user interface. it is possible to integrate this into your app interface, letting you hide this banner and letting you provide your own install button. do this in the beforeinstallprompt event: window.addeventlistener('beforeinstallprompt', handleinstallprompt); you can use this event to integrate an app install button into your app. if you get this event then you can show the button which allows the content to be installed. in the below image i put a subtle bubble at the bottom of the homepage for installing it. it’s easy to find and access but won’t intrude on the user’s app experience. the user pays the cost of notification, don’t be expensive. the user doesn’t pay a cost in money but they do in attention. each notification is a weight upon the user’s mind. a notification to a user when their attention is at their limit could be the motivation the user needs to block all notifications from the entire web browser. each notification should bring joy to the user. how do you bring joy? be timely if you could’ve given this information earlier or could show it later why bother interrupting the user right now. bad notification: ‘did you know you can send money with our app’ good notification: ‘alice has sent you $20’ be efficient opening an app or web page is comparatively slow, it can take a few seconds which is a long time to someone who is busy cooking dinner or watching netflix or at work. if you can put all the information in the notification without them opening the app then do that. if all the response you need is a simple option-a/option-b question such as yes/no then add those buttons. when the user presses the button update the notification to acknowledge the button press but don’t open the app. eve has requested $15 [send now] [decline] be clear there are many options to change the appearance of the notification use as many as possible to make it clear where the app is from, what it’s about and what action is expected from the user. use the badge and icon for your app icon. use the title to give a summary of what action the user needs to take, use the body and image to give relevant information and context. the next section describes how to customise your notificaition. do not waste the user’s time don’t push ads, don’t use them to beg users to return, don’t push boring notifications to remind the user your web app exists. i know it’s tempting and you have quotas to meet but it will only have an adverse effect on how the user views your app and notifications as a whole. the user probably does not love your app as much as you do and will be a lot less forgiving. fully customising push notifications here is an example notification where as much as possible has been configured: { body: "awkward zombie - disagree to agree", icon: "/icons/appicon.png", image: "https://example.com/previewimage.jpg", badge: "data:image/png;base64,ivborw0kggoaaa...", vibrate: [100, 50, 100], data: data, tag: data.url, actions: [ { action: "read now", title: "open" }, { action: "close", title: "close" }, ], }; self.registration.shownotification(title, options); if assets take too long to load they get ignored. the most important icon is the badge icon since it’s the one which gets put into the status. it’s also very small so is ideal to be url encoded and is kept in a constant in the service worker file, to ensure it is loaded reliably. for the icon we use the app icon so it’s extra clear where the notification is from. this is a locally loaded png to be sure it loads quickly. the image is loaded from the third party site the being loaded from the rss feed we don’t need to have it store local it’s okay for these to be from somewhere else. it adds good context but it isn’t essential so if it does not load in time then it’s not an absolute problem. these examples of action buttons i’ve done here are probably not totally necessary since notifications can be closed by some other means and we can just listen for notification clicks. better examples would be something like “open” and “remind me later”, defaulting to “open” if neither button is clicked. detailing the different parts of the notification combining notifications you can’t guarantee a user will check their device in between notifications. new notifications by default do not replace the the old ones so this can result in an overwhelming flood of notifications if they arrive in short succession. if you set the tag property then notifications which share the same tag can overwrite each other. in this example the tag is set to the rss feed’s url, so that notifications from the same rss feed overwrite each other. this is better since we don’t get flooded but now if a second notification comes through we lose the first one. it’s probably a good idea to check to see if you are replacing a notification and if you are concatenate them together. const existingnotifications = await self.registration.getnotifications({ tag: data.url, }); if (existingnotifications.length) { const oldnotification = existingnotifications[0]; options.body = oldnotification.body + '\n' + options.body; } there is a limited amount of text that can be fit into a notification body. an alternative solution would be to replace the notification with one that just says ‘you have n notificaitons’ then when the user taps on it open your web app’s notification interface. updating notifications this can also be a good way to update the user in notification only interfaces. once they have click on the notification to perform an action make, the request to the server to perform that action. once the request completes then show a new notification acknowledging it’s completion. self.addeventlistener("notificationclick", async function (e) { const notification = e.notification; const action = e.action; if (action === "close") { notification.close(); } if (action === "respond") { // close the old notification notification.close(); const response = await fetch('/api/respond.json') .then(r => r.json()); // let the user know if it succeeded or not if (response.ok) { self.registration.shownotification("success", options); } else { self.registration.shownotification(response.error, options); } } }); by having the user interact only through push notifications the user can complete their task and have a positive interaction with your app without needing to dedicate much mental energy to it giving a positive experience. together we can use push notifications to enrich people’s lives and make users have a positive association to push notifications.
Ada Rose Cannon
success story marketplace, mobile, uiux
blogin the world of development, there’s often a fine line between success and failure. in this second entry of our ‘devs doing it right’ series we chatted with monotype—bryan comeau, senior engineering manager and vivek vadakkuppattu, product management director—about the popular app flipfont and how they went about successfully building, launching and monetizing one of the best font apps that enable users across the globe to personalize their mobile devices. **monotype is known for the popular flipfont app. can you tell us a bit about it? ** vivek: flipfont provides a fun and easy way for users to personalize their devices through fonts. flipfont is an app that allows users to change the font on their device (phone, tablet, smartwatch) to something that matches their personality or mood. so, it’s a single app, but each font (that can be used as a part of this app) is available as an individual app by itself, and amounts to 2,500 font apps that are available at the galaxy apps store. you’re one of the world’s best known providers of type-related products, technologies and expertise. why is choosing the right font so important? vivek: consumer electronics devices are a significant part of a person’s identity; we spend so much time looking at our phones that we want to have something that reflects who we are, and a font can really help us express ourselves. with the working world moving to mobile, fonts can also help people read and process information quickly when they’re in a hurry. let’s talk the app build and launch, both from a technical build and marketing perspective. bryan, when you’re looking to develop a new app, what’s the first thing that you have to take into consideration? bryan: when we look at technology on which to develop a new application, one of the things that we’re concerned about is, “do we have the resources readily available or do we have to outsource and find specialized engineers?” simplicity and developer adoption are important. from there, you need to manage your engineering team which actually builds the application. my main concern is keeping my team focused on development and on innovating on new ideas relevant to our app. i don’t want them getting derailed by things like, “how do you get the application up on the store?” or “how are we going to distribute this app?” your dev team should be focused on coding, trying out new software and hardware features, etc. as a developer, that’s where your passion, time and energy should be focused. what was the biggest technical hurdle you faced when building flipfont? bryan: we actually had a couple of difficult technical hurdles that we faced during the development of flipfont that took a significant amount of time to overcome. the first – and arguably most difficult – was figuring out the fastest/best way to modify the core font rendering software so that the device would not have to be completely rebooted when the font was flipped. the second technical hurdle we faced had to do with device testing and figuring out the most efficient way to test all the various flipfont apps on the vast array of samsung devices and resolutions to ensure all our fonts rendered properly. my best dev tip? don’t underestimate the amount of testing required for your applications and make sure you plan on testing on multiple devices with different screen configurations. so that’s the build. vivek, can you talk us through the process of bringing the app to market? what do you – as a product manager – need to focus on? vivek: as a product manager deploying an app, there are three things you need to focus on. first, you want the whole world to be using your app, so channel distribution becomes key. how do you partner with a distributor who has a wide footprint? ideally, you want as many people as possible to see your app. the second thing is monetization. the way people monetize apps is much different today than it was even five years ago, so the feedback and insights you get from your channel partners is crucial. look for a partner that offers a portal that provides you with the flexibility to run promotions that will appeal to your users. ideally you would have access to a portal that allows you to change the prices very quickly and do discounts. you have to be nimble to maximize your profits. the right expertise coupled with the right infrastructure is crucial. the last piece of all of this is analytics. our goal is to make sure our end users are able to express themselves, so we need to know what resonates with people – what kind of fonts do people like? so, a good analytics platform is essential. we need to know how our different fonts are performing, how they are performing in different regions or how they are performing over time, and this helps us continue to build out and invest in developing fonts that people love. bryan, as a developer, what new technologies are you most excited about? bryan: we’re paying close attention to lots of different and emerging technologies. we’re looking at virtual and augmented reality; we’re playing with machine learning, playing with variable fonts, which is actually an old technology that’s resurging lately, and even to some extent, chatbots. so we’ve got our hands in all sorts of different things and what makes sense for our particular app. can you go deeper into your work with variable fonts? bryan: until recently, a font family consisted of a set of fonts. for example, the helvetica typeface is available in bold, roman, italic, bold italic, etc. for each of these instances, a separate font file existed which arguably created duplicate data. variable fonts is a technology that has been around for some time but recently has come back into focus because it provides the ability to generate font instances through embedded intelligence in the font and font engine to create font variations. in the helvetica example, we can actually build one font file with all the information in it to generate the italic instance. given monotype’s business success, what words of wisdom do you have for new developers that are just getting started? vivek: from a marketing perspective, i would say it all starts with the end user. for us, we always have an obsessive focus on making sure the user experience is excellent. once you create a great experience for the user, the revenue will follow. i strongly believe that’s the right approach. you really should put the user first and everything else will follow. trying to sort out things like financials on day one is not how you build a great product that people love. and, the second thing is seeking out the right expertise. once you find it, leverage it. you don’t have to go re-invent the wheel. bryan: i 100% agree with vivek. focus on user experience. ensure that everything is in place for that user to have a successful first experience. when users fire up an app, it has to work. if there’s even the slightest hint of confusion, you have to redo it so there is no confusion. i think another big part of this is leaving a sense of satisfaction with the user. when a user uses an application and they keep coming back to it, that says a lot about the effort you put into that user interface, that experience. so, again, we spend a lot of time understanding our users and how they feel before, during and after. you have to understand what you’re trying to accomplish with your application, and you need to deliver an experience that enables users to do whatever it is they want to do, seamlessly. why did you decide to publish with galaxy apps? bryan: our flipfont project started back in 2011. we were doing some custom work to personalize our app for other mobile devices, and it just made sense to take flipfont to a much broader audience. although our flipfont project started out as custom work, once we chose to move to the samsung platform, we were able to come up to speed quickly and deliver a high-quality application. samsung is a top global brand, particularly in the personal electronics space. from our perspective, it’s an area that we felt pushed not only personalization but also technology. so, for the amount of effort that we were putting into this application and development, we wanted to be able to reach a very, very large group of users in the end. publishing with samsung was a no-brainer for us. lastly, a question that we’re asking all of ‘devs doing it right’: what features do all great/successful apps have in common? bryan: we’ve spent a lot of time playing with applications and understanding what makes an awesome app different from a not-so-awesome app. and i think we’d all agree that it’s solving real, end-user issues. real pain points. we don’t try to re-invent the wheel. we analyze what our end-users are struggling with, and then go solve those problems.
Bryan Comeau & Vivek Vadakkuppattu
events mobile, ai
blog#sdc2017 wrapped up today and it was our best conference yet. the day started off with keynote speeches from arianna huffington, stan lee and rain paris. the action continued on the floor with lots of activity at the samsung pay, galaxy apps and samsung health booths, just to name a few. however, the talk of the conference was the announcement of bixby 2.0, which introduces deep linking capabilities and enhanced natural language abilities to better recognize individual users and create a predictive, personalized experience that better anticipates needs. the bixby sdk will be available to select developers and through a private beta program, with general availability coming in 2018. this afternoon, we sat down with the samsung bixby home team to learn more about bixby home and what developers can expect from its newly launched sdk. tell us about bixby home. bixby home helps you navigate your smartphone and make your day easier. it learns and adapts to show you the content you care about. it allows for easier access to apps, important information and personalized daily content. essentially, you get what you need when you need it. when you interact with bixby home, you’ll engage with cards that contain the information you want. social media cards contain all your important social feeds news cards carry the information that you want to read media cards show you the videos you want to interact with international cards allow you to book travel it’s available on the s8, s8+ and the note 8. it will be available on all galaxy flagships devices coming out in the new year. tell us about the sdk you just launched for bixby home here at sdc. the new sdk gives developers two different ways to develop content cards for bixby home: the first way is app-based integration, which pulls content from partner mobile apps. this creates app-based cards. for this type of development, devs will need to add an api library into their mobile apps. the second way is server-based integration, which pulls content from partner servers. here, developers are required to map endpoints from their server to the bixby home server through a server api. the creation process is simple enough: first devs need to register as a developer and then they need to submit their card plan. next, they create, configure, submit the card for approval, conduct an integration test and deploy. currently, there are six different types of cards they can create: utility, multimedia, news cards, location cards, communications cards and commerce cards – more to come in the near future. what’s the value proposition for devs? why develop bixby home cards? well, there are a few reasons why devs would want to develop for not only for bixby home, but also for samsung mobile: they get access to all samsung customers, they see increased engagement with apps and services and they extend consumer reach across multiple devices. what kind of support will devs receive when developing with the new sdk? with the sdk, partners control their content. however, there are api libraries for both app-based cards and server-based cards. they receive a developer guide, a ux guide, and sample cards and apps to review. through the partner portal, devs can manage their cards. here they can propose, design and create their cards, as well as track card analytics. they’re supported every step of the way. we’re very excited about this new sdk and want to set our developer partners up for success. thanks to all the developers, designers, creators, partners, sponsors and everyone else who joined us at #sdc2017. it truly was a great event and we can wait to start working with you all this year to bring our announcements to life. follow us on @samsung_dev to keep the conversation going and keep an eye on our blog for technical content that will bring your dev game to the next level. and see you next year!
Samsung Developer Program
Distribute Galaxy Store
docto get started in galaxy store, you'll need a samsung account that you register with seller portal and then you can apply for commercial seller status get started in galaxy store before you can begin to sell or distribute your apps in galaxy store, you'll need to complete some basic tasks sign up for a samsung account access to seller portal is dependent on access to this account register with seller portal apply for commercial seller status noteif you plan to have more than one person manage the apps registered in a seller portal account, you can set up a manager account for each person in order to be given manager account permissions, each person must be registered with seller portal manager accounts are not required to have commercial seller status sign up for a samsung account in order to register with seller portal, you will need to create a samsung account here are some tips for when you sign up for a samsung account the email address that you use to create your samsung account is the email address that you will use to log in to seller portal if you are applying for commercial seller status the seller portal account from which you are distributing free or paid apps must have commercial seller status , the email address should use a private or company domain name, not a public domain for example, don't use a gmail or yahoo email account if you must use an email account with a public domain, you will need to explain why when you apply for commercial seller status if you are signing up for a samsung account in order to register for a manager account in seller portal, you may use an email address that uses a public domain the only way to update the password and email address associated with your seller portal account is to update this information in your samsung account the country or region in your samsung account profile determines the country/region in your seller portal profile verify that this is set correctly in your samsung account before registering with seller portal you cannot change this in seller portal after registering your seller portal account if you lose access to your samsung account, you will also lose access to seller portal we recommend you set up a samsung account using an organization alias so that your samsung account can be accessed by more than one person go to https //seller samsungapps com/ and click sign up now blue box in the upper right click sign in with samsung account click create account located between the "next" and "sign in with google" buttons review all of the terms and notices and select the checkbox to agree to them, select any or none of the additional options, and click agree you must agree to all of the terms and notices in order to create a samsung account enter the required information and click next a verification code is sent to the email account you used to create your samsung account go to that email's inbox to get the verification code after you successfully enter the verification code, your samsung account is created if you signed up using the url listed in step 1, you are taken to the seller portal registration page go to the next section for more information about seller portal registration register with seller portal seller portal is a service used to register, publish, manage, and promote your apps in galaxy store if you want to distribute your apps in galaxy store, you must use seller portal to register with seller portal, go to https //seller samsungapps com/, click sign up now, and sign in using your samsung account follow the online instructions to register for a seller portal account see seller portal registration for more information about registering with seller portal here are some tips regarding your registration with seller portal type of member a private seller is if you are being added as a manager account to another seller portal account or if you do not plan to distribute apps you may apply for commercial seller status if you later decide to distribute apps from this account a corporate seller is if you want to sell your apps under a company name name the name entered in seller portal must match what is provided in your financial information when you apply for commercial seller status and must exactly match the provided government id if your government id has a first, middle, and last name, because the seller portal application form doesn’t have a field for your middle name, enter both your first and middle name in the “first name” field country/region if you are using an existing samsung account, you cannot change your country information after seller portal registration verify that this is set correctly in your samsung account before registering with seller portal the country in your seller portal profile must match your financial institution's country when you apply for commercial seller status other your seller name, company name, representative's name for a commercial seller , phone number, address, privacy policy url and support email are displayed in the overview section of galaxy store, accessible from the app details page apply for commercial seller status if you want to distribute free or paid apps in galaxy store, you must have commercial seller status if you are being added as a manager account in seller portal, commerical seller status is not required see commercial seller request for corporate sellers or commercial seller request for private sellers for more information there are many ways to start your application for commercial seller status here are a few when you log in, you may see this pop-up window click ok and another pop-up asking if you will be using a d‑u‑n‑s number displays see the tips in the business verification section below for tips about d‑u‑n‑s or how to apply without d‑u‑n‑s after you log in to seller portal, on the main screen in the upper right corner, click the request corporate commercial seller button the notice pop-up, described above, displays after you log in to seller portal, go to your profile page click profile in the header in the seller status section, click the request corporate commercial seller button the notice pop-up, described above, displays tips when applying for commercial seller status here are some tips regarding your commercial seller request name if you are a private seller, the name must match the name in your seller portal profile and the account holder name provided in the financial information section company name if you are a corporate seller, the company name must match the account holder name provided in the financial information section financial information using paypal is the easiest method for financial information verify your banking information is correct if the seller portal team can’t verify your banking information, your application will not be approved if you are a private seller, the account holder name must match the name in your seller portal profile and the name you provided in the basic information section if you are a corporate seller, the account holder name must match the company name the country of your financial institution must match the country in your seller portal profile all submitted information and documents must be in english or korean, if you are a citizen of south korea by request, many banks can provide a statement in english if you cannot open a bank account and paypal is not available, contact the seller portal team and ask if another option is available see how to contact the seller portal team see entering account information in the seller portal guide business verification business verification is easiest using d‑u‑n‑s if you are in the u s or canada, you can apply for your d‑u‑n‑s number here https //www dnb com/duns/get-a-duns html if you are outside of the u s , you can contact the dun & bradstreet dnb international office in your area you can find the global customer service centers here https //www dnb com/utility-pages/global-customer-service-centers html if you know the agency you need to work with, you may be able to find a link to them here https //www dnb com/duns/google-developers-duns-creation html note that outside of the u s , you may have to pay for your d‑u‑n‑s number if you cannot get a d‑u‑n‑s number, get a dba doing business as or other documentation your country uses all submitted information and documents must be in english or korean, if you are a citizen of south korea contact the seller portal team see how to contact the seller portal team and ask how to apply for commercial seller status if you don't have a d‑u‑n‑s number if using d‑u‑n‑s, if you add a business/industry description that is not related to app development because your business does more than app development, you will be asked to "provide an explanation of the type of application or game that you are planning to release in galaxy store and how your company industry aligns to it" in a follow-up submission to seller portal that is, describe the app s you plan to distribute, then explain why you chose the business/industry description in your profile and how it relates to the apps you plan to distribute if using d‑u‑n‑s, verify that all of your contact information in your d‑u‑n‑s profile is correct and complete for example, be sure to enter a valid phone number if using d‑u‑n‑s, verify all fields in your d‑u‑n‑s profile use standard english characters dnb's lookup api, used by seller portal to get your d‑u‑n‑s information, cannot parse non-english characters if you update information in your d‑u‑n‑s profile, it may take 2-5 business days for changes to be made globally across all dnb sites and up to 2 weeks for international agencies after waiting 5-10 business days for the changes to be made across all dnb sites, resubmit your d‑u‑n‑s to seller portal see submitting documents in the seller portal guide representative's name the representative's name is the contact person for your company, a person who can be contacted if any legal issues come up this must be the name of a person, not an email address nor the name of your business if you are using d‑u‑n‑s for your business verification and this name needs to be updated, you must update this field from your d‑u‑n‑s profile if the representative's name is blank in seller portal, verify you have entered a name in the key principal/principal name field in your d‑u‑n‑s profile seller portal uses the key principal from your d‑u‑n‑s profile to fill in this field you must enter a person's name as the key principal/principal name, not an email address nor the name of your business other if you are using an email account with a public domain, you must explain why you must use this type of email account in your application if you have commercial seller status in play store, mention it if you are a themes-only seller you will not be selling android apps , specify that in the application approval process it can take several days to be approved for commercial seller status it can take up to 10 business days to verify your d‑u‑n‑s number it can take up to 10 business days to verify your international bank account if you receive an email from the seller portal team, please read it closely to see if they are asking you to add or update information you have provided and if you need to resubmit your application if you receive a rejection email, read it carefully it should tell you why your application was rejected/what needs to be fixed if there is no explanation, contact the seller portal team for more information see how to contact the seller portal team if it has been more than 2-3 weeks since you have submitted your commercial seller application, contact the seller portal team and ask if there was something wrong with your application see how to contact the seller portal team how to contact the seller portal team log in to seller portal click help -> contact us click contact us at the customer center located near the bottom of the page if a pop-up with "did you mean samsung com?" appears, close the pop-up
FAQ game, smarttv
docsamsung checkout q&a this topic solves various issues you may face while creating applications that use samsung checkout service select the applicable section to see the most common questions about a specific subject, and click the section heading to access all the available questions for that subject faq search form search before submitting your application for samsung software quality assurance sqa q1 after developing the application with samsung checkout on the staging environment, i've found that it does not work properly on the operating environment what should i do? there are a few mistakes that are frequently made by the developer, check the list below to ensure that you followed the process correctly check that you have registered your product for the operating zone from the dpi portal your product needs to be registered in both staging and operating zones ensure that the application detects the service environment and sets the dpi api url and server type accordingly you can find more information under "prerequisites > 4 initialize the required variables > 4 4 set the dpi url and service environment depending on the server type" section in implementing the purchase process tv#samsung checkout#staging zone#operating zone#dpi portal#register application development issues q2 my application is getting the following error “[payresult] cancel” how can i send a question to samsung checkout team? below you can find a sample email that you can send to us through the samsung apps tv seller office 1 1 q&a section tv#error#tv seller office q3 i got the following error in response to the api "/billing/service/v2/paymethods/md" as { "status" "0410424", "result" "оформление покупки не поддерживается [da-0219-a7af33]", "resultlongmesg" "unavailable service support country ", "resulttitle" "недоступно" } what's wrong? the "md" at the end is the country code for "md moldova, republic of", which is not a supported country for the samsung checkout service to see all the list of country where samsung checkout is supported, go to the "country and currency codes" section in implementing the purchase process tv#error#country code q4 can i test how samsung checkout client works without registering the product on dpi? yes, you can use the information below in your test application to see how samsung checkout client works on the tv before using this information, set your tv's country setting to a supported country like the us in addition, make sure that the test information is only used at the development stage before setting up your own dpi, it must not be used in any real service parameter value appid 3201504002021 paymentserver dev paymentdetails orderitemid dp111000001962 ordertitle 0708_consumable ordertotal 1 5 ordercurrencyid usd table 1 buyitem method request parameters sample code var appid = "3201504002021"; var paymentserver = "dev"; var detailobj = new object ; detailobj orderitemid = "dp111000001962"; detailobj ordertitle = "0708_consumable"; detailobj ordertotal = "1 5"; detailobj ordercurrencyid = "usd"; detailobj ordercustomid = ""; var paymentdetails = json stringify detailobj ; var onsuccess = function data { }; var onerror = function error { }; webapis billing buyitem appid, paymentserver, paymentdetails, onsuccess, onerror ; tv#samsung checkout#register#dpi portal q5 if a user purchases a product which has only been made available in a single country, can that purchase be returned using the "invoice/list" endpoint even if it is using a different country code than the one the user purchased the product in? yes the response for "invoice/list" does not consider the country code of the api request parameter, it returns all of the purchases what the buyer has purchased regardless of country tv#purchase#refund#country code#endpoint q6 is there a checklist that i can follow in order to check if my application is integrating with samsung checkout api properly? yes, below is the minimum checklist for integration with samsung checkout, you can test each item in the checklist to make sure your application works properly when purchasing the product when the samsung checkout client is launched, it shows the loading by itself, no graphical overlapping should exist in user experiences during the transition for example, a 3rd party application should not show loading when launching the samsung checkout client check the purchase process based on the type of product consumable/dynamic item type the user should be able to use the appropriate payment method to buy the item, and the title and price on the purchase page should be same as intended subscription/free trial item type in addition to the above, the user should be able to see the next payment date or relevant information of the subscription item check the post-purchase process in the 3rd party application does the 3rd party application reflect the result of a purchase in the application properly after completing the purchase process? both the success case for a purchase and other cases should be handled is there any overlap when screen is switched from the samsung checkout client to the 3rd party application? check the purchase history based on the type of product go to the "tv menu > samsung account > payment info" to see the subscription or purchase history the user needs to be able to check the purchase history or subscriptions of the item the user needs to be able to check subscription details check the user purchase history from the user buyer portal to make sure the history is properly updated after making a purchase, go to the samsung checkout website and check whether your status is updated properly test for exceptions turn off the tv while the purchase is in progress and checks if any inappropriate status is observed for example, go to the "tv menu > samsung account > payment info" to see the subscriptions or purchase history after completing the purchase of the item, turn the tv off and on again and run the 3rd party application to see if the previous purchase is still in active status tv#checklist#api integration dpi portal usage guide from the dpi portal, partners can register and manage products for sale and access the transaction history logs and sales reports for the applications they own q7 how do price changes work? if you want to change the price of an existing item, go to the dpi site and select "app > product list on the left side > product id" from there, you can change the product price for countries where it is necessary to select a tax category, you need permission from the samsung administrator to change the price prices you set can be changed after three months and you must notify the consumers of the new price tv#price change#dpi portal q8 can we have a unique product for each country? when a buyer purchases a specific product which is sold in multiple countries, they have the right to access any of those versions therefore, if you want to give a right for the purchase only within a single country, you need to register products separately for each country the product id needs to be different tv#product id#register q9 are security keys tied to the appid value? for example, if we have 2 applications each with their own id, will each one have its own securitykey? this is correct, security keys are bound to the appid tv#security key#application id q10 when we login on the dpi site, our application is not listed on it how can we add it? when you enroll your application on the seller site, you need to check the appropriate options for using samsung checkout refer to the picture below tv#dpi portal#unlisted application q11 how long does it take to get approval to use the dpi site? for the staging zone development , approval takes a maximum of 2 days for the operating zone, contract terms and conditions need to be finalized between you and samsung before approval can be granted tv#approval#staging zone#operating zone operation of your service this section explains the issues related to the operation of your service q12 can i use samsung checkout service for hotel tv applications? no, samsung checkout service is available on only samsung smart tvs htv#hotel tv application#samsung checkout q13 can i use my tv to test samsung checkout? i bought samsung smart tv around 2016 yes, samsung checkout service is available since the 2016 samsung smart tv range however, the latest features are guaranteed to function only for the last three years, and there may be a difference in the functionality of each year tv#samsung checkout testing q14 does samsung send push notifications, e-mail, or any sort of messaging to users throughout the service lifecycle free trial, subscribe, cancel ? samsung sends an e-mail to users who buy items, subscribe, cancel, and refund in addition, samsung sends a notice e-mail to users whose subscription item payment has failed tv#notice emails q15 is there any additional information you can pass along on error response codes for the billing api, such as what the response is if the checkvalue is incorrect? yes, you can find additional information at the following page dpi > support > error code tv#billing api#error code q16 what happens to current users who are in the middle of their subscription, when cp changes the price? will the user get some notification when they renew next time? no the service provider must relay this information to the buyers before the changes are made, because samsung checkout does not send price change notifications to buyers who subscribe to subscription products tv#price change#notification q17 does the samsung checkout charge users based on local currency, or based on the credit card that is used? for example, can you pay with us credit card in columbia? will the card be charged in local currency, or in usd? you will be charged in local currency tv#local currency q18 what are "customid" and "ordercustomid"? "customid" and "ordercustomid" have the same value "customid" also uses the same value as "ordercustomid" when calling buyitem if you have a unique id, use it if not, use the samsung account uid tv#customid#ordercustomid q19 how is the provider's user account data matched with samsung checkout's transaction list? this is done using "ordercustomid" if the provider has a user account, they can put the value in the "ordercustomid" parameter when calling the buyitem api this value is mapped to the transaction list's "order custom id" column tv#ordercustomid#transaction list product type this section includes information related to product types that can be purchased using the samsung checkout service limited period q20 in the response data of the "invoice/list" api, are `period`, `appliedtime`, `limitendtime`, and `remaintime` always present for `invoicedetails` objects that have an `itemtype` of limited period? yes tv#limited period#invoice details#item type q21 in the api spec document for the response data of "invoice/list" api, `limitendtime` is listed as "limited period product end time, in 14-digit utc time" does this mean that the field is not mandatory, that it should either exist and be a 14-digit string, or that it should not exist? no, limitendtime must exist when a limited period product is applied tv#limited period#limited end time q22 from the response data of "invoice/list" api, what is the expected value of the `limitendtime` field when a purchase hasn’t been applied yet? it appears that for limited period item purchases that have not been applied `itemtype` is "3" , the `limitendtime` field is set to "" correct limitendtime is calculated based on the date and time when the purchase is applied tv#limited period#limited end time#item type subscription q23 in the response data of the "invoice/list" api, is `subscriptioninfo` ever present for `invoicedetails` objects that do not have an `itemtype` of subscription? subscriptioninfo is shown only when itemtype is subscription tv#subscription info#invoice details#item type q24 does an invoiceid ever change, or is it static? if a new purchase is made, does it always generate a new invoiceid? the invoiceid is generated when the buyer subscribes to a product for regular payment however, subscriptionid is generated only when the buyer subscribes a product for the first time samsung checkout uses the first invoiceid as the subscriptionid and it is never updated tv#invoiceid#subscriptionid q25 does subscription end date `subsendtime` get updated as soon as a user has been successfully billed for the upcoming period of the subscription? no, the subscription end date subsendtime describes the expiry time of this subscription not nextpaymenttime tv#subscription end time q26 how is a month defined in subscriptions? calendar month or 30/31 days? calendar month the next month's payment is made on the same day of the month as the day the consumer first applied for the subscription for example, if the consumer applied for a subscription on november 14th, the next payment is made on december 14th for months that don't have a day corresponding to the settlement date such as the 31st , payment is made at the end of the month tv#calendar month#subscription q27 would the canceling of a subscription/closing of the account automatically trigger a refund at samsung checkout? no even if the consumer withdraws their samsung account or cancels a subscription to the regular payment, this does not refund any payments already charged on the next settlement date, the subscription status is changed from 'active' to 'expired', and regular payment is stopped tv#subscription#samsung account#cancel#refund
tutorials mobile
blognow that you have created an android app, game or watch design, the question is how do you get people to download your latest and greatest boon to mankind? unfortunately, the answer is you just did the easy job; the hard job of marketing your app has to be done. in this era of computer-generated online store lists, you need to be noticed to get on a list. and, the way to achieve that is through self-promotion. first a warning don’t fall for any scam that tells you it can increase downloads for free. it can’t, and it won’t be free. the first way to know it is a scam is that it is unsolicited. second, if you search for a company that will help you, they probably won’t help and it won’t be free. also, if a consultant is just doing search engine optimization (seo), it may tarnish your company’s image. now for the good news samsung developer program has created tools and documentation on how to do self-promotion that you can use whether you are an android app developer, themes designer, tizen app developer, or a watch face designer. the ten percent rule for some reason, and no one knows the reason, things often break down to roughly a ninety to ten percent distribution. there is an old saying in business that ninety percent of the work in an organization is done by ten percent of the people. when it comes to apps in an online store, ninety percent of the downloads on a list are from the first ten percent of the list. with computer-generated online lists, the app with the most downloads does not necessarily mean that the app will be the top featured app. stores like to change what is featured in a list so it isn’t always the same app in the same position. to do that they use a complex algorithm to generate their lists. i don’t know the algorithm but i have noticed some of the factors used by many online stores. here are my empirical observations: number of downloads does matter. download trends do matter. when your downloads are trending up, you move up the list. when downloads are trending down, you move down the list. click-to-download ratio does matter. that is, if five buyers view your app page and only one downloads it, that is a 20% click-to-download ratio. reviews and ratings do matter. no matter how many downloads you have, if your ratings are poor, the store does not want to list you. now we can discuss things you can do in your self-promotions that can help you improve downloads and increase visibility so you can self-perpetuate on the list. stand out from the competition i would travel by automobile four or more times a year for ten to twelve hours. wherever i got low on gasoline, there were many options for gas stations. but, i always chose the same brand because i knew it would have clean restrooms and friendly service. no matter how special or unique you think your app is, there will be competition. whether you have a single android app, a suite of android tools or dozens of watch or theme designs, how you present your company on social media and in the store is important. reduce the competition did you know that the placement on a grocery store shelf is paid for by the manufacturers? they pay to have the eye level shelf so consumers don’t see the competition. badges do this for online promotions. one of the most important things you can do in social media promotion is to use badges so consumers go directly to your product. by using badges, the consumer is taken directly to your software and does not see similar products as they would in a store search. the use of badges affects your click-to-download ratio as well as customer satisfaction. samsung documentation on galaxy store badges lists all the who, what, when, where and how to create and use galaxy store badges effectively. know who your consumer is a man noticed a stranger had been looking at the street under a street light for 15 minutes, so he walked up and asked him what he was looking for. the stranger said, “i dropped my keys when i got out of my car and i am looking for them.” not seeing a car, the man asked where the car was and the stranger pointed to a dark area half a city block away. “why are you looking here, if you dropped the keys there?” the man asked. the reply was “because here is where the light is.” in order to generate downloads, you need to know where the consumer is and not where it is convenient to market the product. if you have a camera app, promote yourself in a photography interest group, not in a mobile phone group. understand your customers, who they are and what devices they use. if your apps are selling well in france, be sure there are localized descriptions in french and that the price is localized in euros. gss customer data helps you target consumers and the marketing materials that are the most effective use of your resources. knowing your customer will directly affect your downloads, raise trending downloads, as well better customer satisfaction. inspire downloads there is a term used in marketing, cta, which stands for a call to action. it means words like “on sale,” “buy now,” and “new and improved” that inspire the consumer to purchase and purchase quickly. there are also subtle ways to inspire or use call-to-action in the ad copy that you write and the images that you use. if you have a fitness app, show people with a smile working out, not a bunch of charts on a mobile phone. show images and written text so consumers will think their life will be better with your app tailor your social media have you ever read a technical manual written by someone who is not fluent in your language and wondered what the documentation said? ninety percent of the world is like that. if you aren’t fluent in the written language, find someone who is. they should either write or proofread the descriptions for you. create social media ads that make your product inviting and entices them to download it. do not be overly clever do not hinder downloading by hiding the download link in some clever wording; make it obvious. do not overdo the number of hashtags so they become confusing. do not include links to other web sites. every time someone clicks to a page other than downloading your app is a chance to lose the download. get positive reviews while i was sitting in a restaurant enjoying a cup of coffee, a few tables away, two men were talking. when i heard them mention shoes, i sort of listened in as i needed some athletic shoes and wanted something different. one man was complaining that his shoes had worn out in three months while the other was saying his were extremely comfortable, even after a year of having them. i didn’t know either of these people. i didn’t know the cause for the ones to wear out faster than the other. there could have been dozens of things that caused one pair of shoes to wear out quicker. but that complaint stuck in my mind, and when i bought shoes, i bought the shoes with the positive review. positive online reviews will increase the likelihood of an app being downloaded. but, lower ratings, when responded to correctly, may also increase the chance of an app being downloaded. consumers pay attention to reviews and read what people say. so, unlike my experience, they may know the circumstances why a review was poor and if you corrected it. wait to ask for a review. the initial use of an app may be off-putting; but after a few uses, the customer starts to understand the benefits of an app which may outweigh everything else. when you get a bad review, respond to the customer in a positive manner. samsung has documented best practices for asking for reviews and how to read and respond to reviews in the galaxy store app review page. review ratings and the speed of a response may be used by a store in the placement on a computer-generated list. one more lesson when i was young, we had a large snowfall and i wanted to build a snowman. i started out with a small ball and pushed it around and it got larger. i looked at my dad and said, “this is hard work. i don’t think i can make a snowman.” he said, “son, if you want to make a snowman you have to keep pushing it.” the same is true with increasing your downloads. you need to keep pushing until you are top of the list. tony morelan’s samsung developer podcast recently interviewed the founder of skimble, maria ly. skimble is the 2021 best of galaxy store awards winner for the mobile fitness app workout trainer. during the interview, maria discussed skimble's use of marketing techniques for discoverability and monetization. i was inspired by how she grew a small diverse start-up into a worldwide enterprise. additional resources samsung developer program and galaxy store seller portal have documented much of the marketing methods above and even more to help you be a successful developer in the following links: galaxy store distribute page is the overview page for android apps, tizen apps, android games, smart tv apps and podcasts. galaxy store app page helps from start to finish on creating, publishing and marketing your apps. galaxy store seller portal guides include technical information on implementing the marketing techniques in seller portal. stay in touch with the latest news by subscribing to our monthly newsletter and stay up-to-date on all things related to the galaxy ecosystem by joining us on our developer forum.
Ron Liechty
Connect Samsung Developer Conference
webtech sessions dive into the future of connected customer experiences through tech sessions by developers offering further insight into the innovations introduced in the keynote filter filter filter all reset apply there are no results. sessions contents & service, open innovation 8k visual quality and ecosystem in this session, we will present how the genuine 8k contents correctly displayed on 8k display devices could deliver our customers an immersive picture quality experience. we will start with a summary of the previous studies about user perceptions regarding the 8k visual quality. we then will explain why the full-frequency 8k contents are superior to the lower resolution in producing fine details on the image. we will also discuss some technical challenges we face toward adopting and utilizing 8k contents in a real-world environment and describe how we can overcome these hurdles. specifically, we will discuss technologies such as super-resolution and new image sensors to overcome the full-frequency barrier of 8k content. last, we will introduce the 8k association (8ka), a non-profit organization composed of key technology companies in the consumer and professional 8k ecosystem, and briefly mention 8ka's ongoing effects on the research, standardization, and promotion of 8k visual quality. sessions contents & service, developer program, mobile add samsung pay as your payment method in this session, we will share learnings from our experience developing the samsung pay mobile payment service, revealing insights that can be applied to your own platforms. we will also take a look at the samsung pay development kit and how you can use this for your own service. sessions game, ar, mobile ar emoji: your avatar, your experience the ar emoji feature on samsung devices enables users to create a 3d avatar model that can be used in other applications. similar to avatars currently available in games or in the metaverse, our ar emojis are a chance for users to express themselves, their style and their personality, digitally. but this is only the beginning. in this session, we’ll explore the future of ar emojis and how the ar emoji sdk is opening more opportunities for developers to collaborate with samsung to bring to life new services featuring these avatars and optimize them for the metaverse though our collaboration with unity. sessions ai, iot, smart appliances bixby 2022 what’s new what’s new with bixby in 2022? in this session, you will hear about some of the exciting improvements to the nlu and on-device bixby as well as updates to the bixby developer studio, which introduces a brand new javascript runtime that provides a modern, secure, high-performance environment. we will also take a closer look at the brand new bixby home studio, which allows smart device developers to customize and optimize voice control of smart devices, including allowing a single command to intelligently control multiple smart home devices. sessions contents & service, game creating spectacular galaxy game audio experiences with dolby atmos galaxy smartphones and tablets can produce spectacular game audio with dolby atmos. discover how you can create deeper emotional connections with players, keep them playing for longer, and earn their loyalty by unleashing the full power of samsung galaxy mobile game audio. in this session you will hear from dolby’s partner audiokinetic who will discuss how developers can make dolby atmos games, including a walkthrough of how to use dolby atmos plug-ins in audiokinetic's wwise audio middleware. moong labs – creators of epic cricket one, of india's most popular sports games – will also share how dolby atmos benefitted their game and you will find out how dolby supports game developers and other activities on our website. sessions health, wearable expand health experiences with galaxy watch the galaxy watch’s powerful bioactive sensor, together with the wear os powered by samsung, is transforming mobile health experiences. and now, this technology is even more powerful thanks to the samsung privileged health sdk. find out how the samsung privileged health sdk is allowing developers to retrieve raw or analyzed sensor data for their applications, including bia, ecg, blood oxygen level or sweat loss, and help users’ to accurately monitor their health stats. sessions web flexible and private web experience on samsung internet in this session, you will learn how to enhance and optimize your web experience for foldable devices using device posture api and viewport segment media query. we'll also take a closer look at how samsung internet protects users’ privacy online. sessions mobile, enterprise, developer program google and samsung strengthen enterprise ecosystem together samsung’s global mobile b2b team is working closely with the android enterprise team to build a galaxy ecosystem of partners who are bringing innovation into workplaces. discover how partner solutions create unique experiences on samsung devices and how we plan to work together to help future partners step into the samsung android ecosystem for enterprises and smbs. sessions contents & service, developer program, enterprise hdr10+/salt and automatic hdr video creations for productions hdr10+ is an essential technology for premium hdr viewing experience and it is widely reach to consumer displays including mobile devices. in order to provide hdr content services, it requires changing service provider's infra structure or workflows and video processing technology from sdr to hdr with a lot of engineering efforts. then, hdr10+/salt solutions and partnership program from samsung is designed to build an extremely cost effective automatic solution up for content creators, post production houses and ott service providers even including game developers. the solution package is designed with various standalone applications, reference apps, sdks on various oses and partnership programs to help 3rd parties for creation of hdr contents. hdr10+/salt partnership program provides full compatibility to hdr10+ llc certification program and major studios, ott service providers and tool makers are already partners of the program and samsung provides them the best hdr content quality. sessions developer program, open innovation, health healthcare research hub our open source project provides end-to-end solutions such as sdk, platform, and portal for various use cases from medical research studies to clinician services using wearable devices. medical research does not have to stay complicated. anyone can easily build and customize their own research studies or clinician services using this open source. recently, as the accuracy of sensors installed on wearable devices has improved, interest in healthcare research using wearable health data is increasing. however, it takes a lot of time for researchers to develop research applications and server infrastructure for storing and analyzing data from scratch. sr is developing android sdk and data platform solutions that support healthcare research using health data from our wearable devices (watch 4 and later versions) and provide them as open source in order to solve the pain points of these researchers and establish a digital health care research ecosystem centered on our wearable devices. sessions iot, monetization, smart appliances home connectivity alliance introduction of home connectivity alliance and how appliance manufactures can enable interoperability across brands. hear how hca interoperability can benefit consumers and partners including b2b (home builders, mfu, etc). join the hca and become a leader in innovation within the connected iot ecosystem. sessions ai, ar immersive audio we will demonstrate an audio system with dramatically improved immersive 3d audio experience. hardware will be similar to samsung’s critically acclaimed hw-q990b soundbar, but will include several new technologies that will be found in future samsung products. these technologies automatically correct for room acoustics and the location of the listeners and loudspeakers. visitors will compare the sound of the system before and after the system’s unique automated calibration process. listeners will enjoy improved spatial and timbral performance in stereo, surround and immersive audio formats with both music and cinematic content. sessions security & privacy introducing blockchain wallet with knox vault in this session, we introduce blockchain wallet for samsung smart tv. blockchain wallet allows our smart tv users to manage their blockchain accounts and transfer their cryptocurrency to another blockchain account. it ensures to retain a key for blockchain transactions in a secure way. dapp developers can build their tv dapp with blockchain wallet for blockchain functions such as blockchain connection and transaction signing. knox vault is an enhanced hardware-based security solution to protect sensitive data such as cryptographic keys, passwords and personal data. knox vault provides strong security guarantees against hardware attacks such as physical attack, side-channel attack and fault attack. as a core component of the knox security platform, knox vault is an isolated, tamper-proof, secure subsystem with its own secure processor and memory. sessions developer program, enterprise, android introducing samsung galaxy camera ecosystem discover how advanced camera technologies, based on samsung’s leading hardware and software, can enable developers to create more powerful camera experiences for their users. we will take a look at some of the incredible partnerships samsung has already formed with numerous app developers and reveal how these collaborations enriched users’ camera experiences. sessions mobile, android, productivity intuitive multitasking experience based upon android 12l join us to see how samsung continues to enhance the large screen user experience further with fast app switching and intuitive multitasking capabilities. to maximize the galaxy foldable experience, we're expanding flex mode even further with more apps and partners as well as google's ongoing collaborative effort in android 12l. sessions iot, mobile, uwb joint efforts on standardization toward open ecosystem of uwb services the presentation will introduce samsung's joint efforts with industry partners on the uwb tech/service standardization, which is essential for creating an interoperable open ecosystem of uwb products and services. especially, it will introduce activities at fira consortium, which was established by samsung jointly with industry leaders to provide interoperability specifications as well as certification programs. it may also include target uwb services and relevant standardization status & plan. sessions ar, game, tizen journey to immersive interactive exp in big screen with xr and avatar fw xr framework webapis enable developers to build xr applications on the tizen platform. we will go over features of the webapis, share some demos, and provide information on how to get started. additionally we will show you a sample code of how to capture and handle user's gestures and full body movement. avatar framework for tizen is a unified solution providing high level apis that allow samsung developers to easily include the 3d avatar models and features in their samsung tv applications. we will go over all the cool features and options of our framework in this video. sessions connectivity, android, mobile le audio: the future of wireless sound introducing le audio: a new standard for bluetooth technology on galaxy devices. le audio will enhance the performance of classic bluetooth audio and introduce isochronous communication, creating whole new wireless audio experience on galaxy devices. in this session, we will introduce the technical features of le audio, what it means for the galaxy ux and how you could enhance wireless audio experience of your app with le audio. sessions design, ui/ux one ui design principles in partnership one ui creates a unified experience across our galaxy devices, from phones and tablets to watches and galaxy books. in creating and refining one ui, we've followed four key principles: simplicity, effortlessness, consistency, and authenticity. with one ui, we've also made a commitment to openness, which means some of the best things in one ui come from partnerships. in this session, we'll talk about some of those partnerships and how we aligned them with our four design principles to get great results. sessions ui/ux, design, android one ui: customer centric design one ui starts with a true understanding what our customers want. hear more about what samsung have learned from listening to extensive customer feedback and usage data, and how we have adapted our designs in response. we'll take a look at some real-life examples of how the ux design of the calendar, settings and samsung health app has evolved over time to better meet customer needs. sessions enterprise, data, security & privacy our journey to responsibly handling data at samsung, we place personal data protection as one of our top priorities. learn how we responsibly handle personal data in our applications and platforms. we'll share with you our journey in protecting personal data. we'll talk about what it means to responsibly govern and access data in samsung's enterprise environment. we'll cover specifics on how to classify & protect data as a whole. pick up insights on privacy technologies and design patterns we apply in our data intensive applications today. sessions developer program, tizen, ui/ux prism: the new ux development tool and process in today’s environment of rapid and unpredictable transformation, establishing a creative and increasingly collaborative tech culture is one of the most challenging requirements. in this session, we would like to introduce a new method to revolutionize the tizen platform-based app development process. a new development process named prism automates most of the inefficient overheads from design to implementation of app ui, innovatively improving app development productivity. we will introduce prism-based development process and deliver this innovative app development culture to developers through the sessions. sessions developer program, smart appliances, tizen remote test lab: what’s new in tv development environment the current tizen tv development environment, represented by emulator and tv, is a very limited support method for developers. depending on the version of emulator, the latest features currently supported by the tv may not be available, and various models of physical tvs may be required to verify actual operation. rtl tv tries to overcome the limitations of the current development environment. sessions contents & service, monetization, data samsung tv plus: the advanced ad-tech and partnerships that fund free tv samsung’s free ad-supported tv (fast) service “tv plus” has been a breakout success. although it looks and feels like traditional tv, it is anything but! behind the scenes of this slick tv & mobile experience is high-performance technology, vast amounts of data & algorithms, and a thriving partner ecosystem. join this session to learn more about the mind-boggling world of advertising technology, how it works, and how multiple companies come together to provide free tv to millions of consumers worldwide. sessions android, contents & service samsung wallet, it's convenient, personal and safe as the growth of digital wallets skyrockets, samsung recently announced samsung wallet – a new platform bringing almost all of the cards you’d typically find in a physical wallet, as well as important documents, into one easy-to-use and secure mobile application. as samsung wallet rapidly expands its content set, find out more about the future of digital wallets and how open api’s can allow developers to build integrations for this service. sessions iot, security & privacy smartthings edge: the next level experience discover how samsung is transitioning the smartthings-published groovy dths to edge drivers while maintaining a seamless experience for our users. we’ll walk through the process of onboarding edge-based devices and how to set up an automation with an edge device that runs locally. sessions iot, monetization, smart appliances smartthings energy service introduction of smartthings energy service and how partners (energy companies, smart device mfgs, etc) can integrate to provide a seamless energy management service for their consumers leveraging samsung's smartthings energy ecosystem. sessions iot, contents & service, open innovation smartthings find: find alongside 200+ million users smartthings find is samsung’s fastest growing service, powered by more than 200 million galaxy users. discover some of the new features and functions added over the past year and learn how partners can leverage the service to innovate their own solutions to meet the needs of businesses and consumers alike. sessions iot, contents & service, open innovation smartthings platform enhancements for openness and interoperability the smartthings platform continues to evolve to promote openness and interoperability. in this session, we will share some exciting new updates to the smartthings platform to support matter and thread, and discuss the home connectivity alliance. sessions health, tizen telehealth in samsung devices samsung display device (smart tvs & smart monitors) users will be able to launch telemedicine service within the samsung products. once you pick your physician, you can use one of the approved usb cameras to connect to the tv and jump on a video call with a physician via external service provider's built-in web applications. after a few account setup process on mobile / pc, you can easily start your session any time on tv without any additional complicated inputs. at your session, you can also receive a prescription to be filled in at a mail-in online pharmacy (pc or mobile) to receive prescription drugs at your doorstep. sessions open innovation, enterprise, productivity the next generation samsung retail solutions in a mobile-first world, device convergence, simplification, ergonomically designed accessories, sw solutions and the connected galaxy ecosystem are helping to boost productivity and efficiency in the retail industry. in this session, we will explore how the next generation of retail solutions are shaping the industry’s future and will take a closer look at samsung’s three major retail solutions - data capturing, payment, and push-to-talk. sessions developer program, mobile, android the samsung knox partner program: partner success journey the samsung knox partner program (kpp) equips you with everything you need to build ideas and market your mobile solutions. in this session, we will take a look at some of our partners’ solutions and how collaborating with the samsung kpp has helped enhance their user experience. join us to see why kpp is causing a stir in the business developer community! sessions enterprise, tizen tizen everywhere this session highlighted samsung's direction and goals for the enterprise and b2b markets, focused on taking tizen to the next level on so many platforms. various enterpriser displays based on tizen and solutions suitable for business purposes will always be together. tizen enterprise platform will provide all the technology infrastructure you need, including the samsung developers portal for b2b for developer support and the samsung apps tv seller office for custom application support in your own business. after announcing "tizen open" at sdc in 2019, samsung established licensing system to provide tizen tv os to other tv makers. in order for partners to develop tizen tv products faster, samsung prepared reference tv solution. in europe, australia, türkiye, tizen tvs have been released sequentially through more than 10 tv brands since september 22. sessions wearable, design, android watch face studio's first journey and expectation for next a must-have to create beautiful watch faces! watch face studio (wfs) is now a little over a year old. hear the developers of wsh share the highs and lows of bringing the tool to life and meet the designers responsible for creating the eco watch face. this session is an insight into the year-long journey to create wfs – and the story of where we’re going next. sessions iot, tizen, ui/ux what's new in tizen? are you curious about the direction in which intelligent iot platform “tizen” is developing? this session introduces ui assistant technology and extended 3d ui framework for providing advanced user experience, and explains innovative technologies that make run the tizen platform on top of the android hardware abstraction layer to facilitate securing new hws. and introduce the iot standard 'matter', which will be newly supported on tizen. finally, we provide a guide and tip for cross platform application development. sessions ai, iot, smart appliances what’s new in bixby for smart home bixby brings the smart home experience to life with the power of voice. find out how our new tool, bixby home studio, will enable device manufacturers to build more intelligent, more engaging voice experiences for smartthings-connected devices. sessions mobile, design, ui/ux what’s new in one ui 5 one ui 5 pushes personalization and productivity to the next level. explore new features that enable you to build a galaxy experience that reflects your personal style and help you to get more done on all your devices, wherever or whenever you need to.
Develop Galaxy Watch for Tizen
doctrial periods a trial period lets a customer try your watch face for free for a limited time if your watch face includes features that are hard to describe in words or convey in a screenshot or youtube video, a trial period is a great way to have a customer experience your watch face first hand trial periods use samsung in-app purchase iap iap is a payment service that makes it possible to sell items in galaxy store and is seamlessly integrated into galaxy watch studio gws that is, just like designing a watch face with gws, setting up a trial period in gws does not require you to learn the code needed to implement this feature after you have completed your watch face design, add a trial period in gws and, optionally, test it requirements in order to use trial periods in your watch face, the following requirements must be met you must have a commercial seller account in seller portal your customer must be able to purchase watch face apps from galaxy store your customer can only download your watch face which includes a trial period to a samsung watch running tizen 2 3 2 3 or higher see compatibility for a list of compatible devices notetrial periods cannot be used with weather text components such as weather type, temperature, humidity, city name weather , and last update time weather about distributing your watch faces with a trial period as a seller, a key metric is to measure and maximize the conversion from free trial period to purchase however, the most common business model for app purchases for galaxy watch in 2019 was the paid app model—without a trial period in the majority of cases, the consumer assesses the paid app based on the screenshots and consumer reviews in galaxy store, buys it and then sees the app on the watch the try-and-buy model allows the user to test the app risk-free on the watch for a trial period before buying it because trial periods are configured using iap, take the following into consideration typically, an in-app purchase is used to provide additional features and functionality that may be purchased for an app in this case, the in-app purchase is used to purchase the app your watch face galaxy store may list your watch face as an “in-app purchase” item this categorization may be confusing to the consumer when using a trial period, you must set the price of your watch face to free in seller portal if you do not prominently display that your watch face has a trial period, a customer may feel as if they have been misled after downloading your watch face be sure to include wording in the app title about the trial period for example, “try and buy” when configuring iap settings in gws, you can choose to limit the consumer to one installation of your watch face, forcing the customer to purchase your watch face to continue using it; or reset the trial period when the watch face is re-installed, allowing the customer to re-install your watch face continuously and use it for free add a trial period to add a trial period to your watch face, you’ll need to set the in-app purchase settings for your watch face in gws select a test mode when you build your project in gws configure in-app purchase when you register your watch face in seller portal set in-app purchase settings in gws after you have finished designing your watch face, set the options for the trial period launch gws and open your watch face project click the in-app purchase settings icon in the toolbar or select project > in app purchase settings enter the following information in the in app purchase settings window field name description enable in app purchase select to enable a trial period for your watch face option select the action that occurs when a customer re-installs your watch face configured with a trial period this option is ignored when testing your watch face once trial is expired, unable to reuse app – when the trial period is over, the customer cannot re-install your watch face nor restart the trial period that is, once the trial period is over, the customer must purchase your watch face to continue to use it trial is reset when app is re-installed – the customer can re-install your watch face and restart the trial period that is, the customer can re-install your watch face continuously and use it for free free for the length of time of the trial period the time must be at least 1 minute and at most 999 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes a field cannot be blank or empty that is, you must enter a value, even if it is 0 zero noteif you enter a value for minutes that is greater than 59, each multiple of 60 in the value is added to the hour value for example, if you enter 0 days, 1 hour, and 99 minutes, the period will be automatically set to 0 days, 2 hours, and 39 minutes likewise, if you enter a value for hours that is greater than 23, each multiple of 24 in the value is added to the day value if the day value is set to 999 and the hour value is greater than 23, the day value resets to 100 tipif you will be testing the trial period, set the time to 1 minute to have the trial period expire quickly item id an id you create that is made up of letters, numbers, or some special characters such as - \ _ the id is used when registering an in-app item for your watch face in seller portal this id must be unique from all other in-app item ids for the same watch face you can check for uniqueness when you register your watch face in seller portal however, you will only be using one in-app item id when setting a trial period for your watch face click ok build your project before you can register your watch face in seller portal, you must build your project in gws in gws, click the build icon in the toolbar , f10, or select project > build in the build project window, set the iap test mode commercial – you are ready to sell your watch face in galaxy store if the customer purchases your watch face after the trial period ends, the customer is charged for this purchase success test – test what happens when the trial period ends and a customer purchases your watch face after the trial period ends, the tester may purchase the watch face however, the tester is not charged for this purchase failure test – test what happens when the trial period ends and a customer does not purchase your watch face after the trial period ends, the tester cannot purchase the watch face complete the rest of the fields in the build project window and click build a tpk file is created and is available to download to seller portal by default, this file is located in the \users\ <user name>\gearwatchdesigner\workspace directory of your pc register your watch face in seller portal when you are ready to test or sell your watch face, you must register it in seller portal for more information about seller portal, refer to the [online guides][4] log in to seller portal click add new application click galaxy watch, select a default language, and click next noteif you are registering your first watch face, you will see a message for a design review request before you can submit your first watch face, it must be approved by the galaxy watch review team see watch face design review for more information in the app information tab, enter the application title, under category, select watch faces and a subcategory, then click save if you are preparing to test your watch face, you only need to complete these two fields if you are preparing to sell your watch face, you must fill in all required fields it is recommended that you include wording in the app title about the trial period for example, “try and buy” otherwise, your customers may be surprised and unhappy when their trial period ends click the binary tab and click add binary select the galaxy watch resolution s and google mobile service option, click upload, navigate to and select your tpk file, and click save remove all gear s2 devices from the selected devices see was your galaxy watch app submission rejected due to gear s2 incompatibility? here's a solution for more information click the country/region & price tab and verify that the watch face price is free or, set it to free and click save cautiondo not set the price to paid if you set the watch face price to paid, the customer must pay for your watch face when it is initially downloaded that is, the customer must pay for the trial period then, after the trial period expires, the customer must pay for the watch face again if he decides to purchase it the price for your watch face with a free trial period is set in the in app purchase tab click the in app purchase tab and click add item enter the item id the same item id you configured in the in-app purchase settings in gws and click check if the item id can be used, click yes then, enter the item title, description, and price click apply after entering the price the price is charged when the customer chooses to purchase your watch face after the trial period has expired optionally enter prices for individual countries then, click save notethe item title is displayed when the customer is purchasing your watch face after the trial period has expired if the item id cannot be used, you must re-set the item id you configured in gws from in-app purchase settings , re-build your project, replace the binary in seller portal, and add the in-app purchase item if you are testing your watch face, continue to the next section, test the trial period if you are preparing to sell your watch face, complete all the required sections in seller portal before you submit it for validation for more information about seller portal, refer to the online guides noteif you are testing your watch face, you only have to register it it does not need to be submitted test the trial period after you have registered your watch face in seller portal, you can run your design on a watch to test the trial period in order to test your watch face, you must have a supported samsung watch running tizen 2 3 2 3 or higher and the phone paired to the watch must have the galaxy wearable app installed launch gws and open your watch face project click the run on device icon in the toolbar , f9, or select project > run on device select the device on which to test your watch face the watch face is installed on your device if no devices are listed, click scan devices if gws can’t find your device, see the faq, why can’t i connect to my device? when the trial period has expired, you will see the following message on the watch if you selected success test for the iap test mode when you built your watch face in gws click purchase on your phone, click continue complete the purchase of your watch face you will not be charged if you selected failure test for the iap test mode when you built your watch face in gws click purchase the purchase fails the watch face displays the initial message “free trial period has already expired” long press the watch face and select to uninstall it importantafter testing, when you are ready to sell your watch face, in gws, you must reset the iap test mode to commercial and re-build your project then, in seller portal, replace the binary with this re-built project file and complete all the required fields before submitting your watch face for validation and distribution track downloads and purchases if you want to compare the number of downloads of your watch face to the number of in-app items purchased the purchase of your watch face after the trial period has expired , use seller portal statistics log in to seller portal and click statistics the galaxy store statistics system opens in another page from the galaxy store statistics system, go to applications in the upper right corner, there is a date range click on it and then set the date range selection to the period of time in which you want to track your app scroll to the bottom of the page above the list of apps, select the new downloads filter then locate your watch face to determine the number of downloads during the date range you selected select the item purchases filter then locate your watch face to determine the number of purchases made of your watch face noteremember how long you set your trial period you will not see any sales of your watch face for that length of time after your watch face first appears for sale in galaxy store
success story game, mobile
blogin this first blog of a two part series, maxim kirilenko, chief business development officer at playrix, chats with samsung developer's senior marketing manager, jeanne hsu, about playrix and gardenscapes tm. jeanne hsu (jh): welcome maxim. how did your professional journey lead you to playrix? maxim kirilenko (mk): thank you. i've been in the gaming industry since 2007. i started off at the korean company gravity, working on pc games like ragnarök online and requiem online. i've come a long way in the industry since then—from quality assurance manager to executive director at a game publisher in russia. i also worked as director of business development for an it company doing internet advertising for a while. for three years, i helped the company penetrate foreign markets and launch new services in indonesia, brazil, poland, and thailand, to name a few. i was always fond of games and had played playrix's gardenscapes. while i was working in it, i was recruited by playrix. i realized i had wanted to return back to gaming, my passion. so in 2018, i joined playrix as head of marketing growth. i worked in business development in marketing originally until i combined it with business development in general. now i lead the business development and m&a (merger and acquisition) teams. jh: what's the history of playrix? mk: our team has been developing games since 2004, but the founders of playrix, dmitry and igor bukhman, started making games even earlier, back when they were still in school. by 2010, the company had released several successful pc games. around that time, they started developing social network games. the first facebook game, township, was released in 2012 and immediately made the top 50. it was also the first project to be released as a mobile game later on. the mobile version of fishdom came out in 2015, which is when the company became the leading mobile game developer in eastern europe. jh: i like your strategy. in 2004, your focus was pc games and then you switched to mobile in 2015. mk: in 2016, playrix released gardenscapes, which was the first game in our famous scapes series. the company was actively growing, and in 2018, we came to the conclusion that it was time to build new partnerships. so we started developing our m&a [merger and acquisition] strategy, and over the past four years, 13 studios from armenia, serbia, ukraine, russia, and belarus have joined the playrix group of companies. in 2020, playrix placed in the top three for leading game publishers worldwide according to app annie, and last year we climbed to second place. [app annie has been renamed data.ai] jh: that's amazing! what do you attribute to your success? mk: it was not random. we originally started with pc games, then social and web versions. next we switched to mobile. the switch to mobile really accelerated our rapid growth. growing with the m&a strategy and adding talented people really helped create aaa titles which accounts for our rapid growth. we want to keep focusing on creating more innovative games and new genres. jh: where is playrix located, and where do you live? mk: playrix employees can work remotely from anywhere or from one of our 17 offices located in ireland, ukraine, belarus, russia, serbia, kazakhstan, and armenia. i live in dublin, ireland, playrix's headquarters. jh: how many employees work at playrix? mk: playrix now employs more than 4,000 people, and that number continues to grow. jh: how did covid impact the team? mk: playrix has a hybrid approach that people can work from anywhere—the office, their home, the beach, anywhere in the world. our department had 50% were working remotely in their home offices or in other countries. we wanted to maintain that culture. after covid hit, we maintained the same approach. in dublin only 30% of the staff works in the office, others could be remote. they may decide they didn't want to commute during the winter when it's rainy season here. people could decide to work from home or other remote places and we didn't really have to make many changes to our work environment. we believe people can innovate in whatever space they want. jh: how did your relationship with samsung start? mk: in 2018, we met and befriended the samsung team at a local game dev conference, white nights in st. petersburg. we met the samsung u.s. and korea teams, which has resulted in a fruitful cooperation; five playrix games, including gardenscapes, were released in the galaxy store in december 2020. i'm in touch with a lot of samsung teams from the u.s., korea, and europe. playrix gardenscapes jh: playrix won the best of galaxy store award - best casual game 2021 for gardenscapes. what does it mean to win this award? mk: we were surprised and thrilled to receive this award. it's the result of close collaboration and hard work from both the samsung and playrix teams. it's really a mutual award between playrix and samsung. jh: in what ways have you promoted winning this award? mk: we announced this across our social channels on facebook and instagram, even on austin's page! austin, the butler, has his own page on instagram. he's very social with the players and actively posts about his life. he shared news how his favorite game (gardenscapes) received this award from samsung. players were excited. it increased player loyalty too. internally, we were all excited and congratulated each other. it was really good news for all of us! we also displayed our samsung badges and redesigned our website. we use our website to talk about our company, promote our awards, and recruit others. but we don't promote the award on mobile; we want our players to have the best experience possible, focused on the game. we have one unified loading screen no matter what the country or platform. jh: what drives your team at playrix? mk: our development team is focused on making the highest quality product that brings joy to millions of users around the world. we try to maintain players' interest in the product on a daily basis with additional content like themed events. jh: how did playrix come up with the game gardenscapes? mk: originally gardenscapes was a pc hidden object game—to beat levels, you had to open rooms, and search for items to help austin the butler restore the dilapidated mansion and garden. while developing the mobile version, the visuals of the game changed, but the mechanics stayed the same. the user still had to open rooms and could even change the outfit of the game's main character, austin the butler. during the soft launch, the metrics were alright, but they weren't groundbreaking. around 2014, at our annual company conference playrixcon, one of the teams suggested combining мatch-3 mechanics with the gardenscapes storyline during a creative contest. we decided to test the idea. the first game prototype was named green dream, and it was later soft-launched. the metrics were off the charts! in just six months, the hidden object mechanics were replaced with match-3 levels. the mobile game was later released in its updated form, in july 2016. with more players using their smartphones, we noticed hidden objects were more difficult to find in the condensed space vs. on a large pc display. we realized we could bring in more players by shifting from hidden objects to the match-3 concept. this was a major turning point for us. jh: how did you come up with the character austin the butler? mk: initially, the technical assignment was rather vague: "a butler, colonial style, should appeal to our target audience." the first sketches of austin were rather clichéd, so we started thinking about what would evoke warm feelings in players. we decided to draw inspiration from icons of the 60s and 70s, namely the beatles, to resonate with our target audience's memories of their youth. so that's how austin got his mustache and sideburns and started looking a bit like ringo starr. the suspenders, bow tie, and baldness added to his aristocratic image. but looks aren't the main reason why austin is so popular. he's mostly beloved for his personality—he has his own opinions and desires, he makes mistakes just like everybody else, and he can get nostalgic or crack a joke. jh: that's interesting austin was inspired by the beatles. that would appeal to many gamers. [austin was created 10 years ago by the game design team.] jh: what inspired the scapes series? mk: we wanted to create a game that would bring joy to millions of users around the world and distract them from the monotony of daily routines. it's our idea of a warm and cozy place, where you can relax by tending to the garden and renovating the surrounding area. and i think we achieved our goal. [playrix has gardenscapes, homescapes, farmscapes, and wildscapes as part of the scapes series.] game ideas, discoverability, and reach jh: how many games has playrix published, and how many are in galaxy store? mk: playrix has published seven mobile games in total, five of which are in galaxy store. [gardenscapes, homescapes, fishdom, township, and manor matters] jh: where do you get game ideas? mk: our game producers are open to new ideas that appear in the market—we keep track of new games of various genres, not only casual ones, and we are always ready to experiment. this applies both to game events and mechanics. our strategy is to stay abreast of what's going on in the market, explore the ever-changing preferences of users, and not be afraid to try new things. we have a fairly large game development team, which includes game designers and producers—these are creative people who not only draw ideas from their own imagination, but also closely follow trends and audience interests, and are not afraid to experiment. they could have mini-brainstorms, major brainstorms, thinking about new games. our goal is not to produce as many games as possible, but rather we are focused to create aaa games, games with high quality. that's why we don't focus on brainstorms as much. we also see gardenscapes as not just a match-3 game with decorations and a story line, but as an entertainment platform. for example, within gardenscapes, players can also play other genres as a mini-event; they can play mini-games like mini puzzles, collapse mechanics, merge mechanics. it's an entertainment platform. jh: so people could be online all day! those mini-games increase even more engagement. mk: yes, that's true! people could spend a whole day gaming. about a year ago during the pandemic, we received a lot of thanks from our customers. they appreciated our games. they didn't experience mental problems or depression being in stuck at home and started to get involved with austin's story and his family. it was a mini journey in a fantasy world. they were able to derive a lot of positive energy to overcome the tough lockdowns in the real world. jh: that's a great message, a very positive experience. the growth of gardenscapes and the other scapes games must have exploded. mk: yes, since people were in lockdown, they were looking for other things to do. we had "free to play" games. new customers started to play and joined our established core audience. with the samsung team, we were able to offer gardenscapes, homescapes, and other games at an opportune time via galaxy store. we feel we've brought a very positive input to the whole gaming world. jh: that's excellent. what was your ranking before and during the pandemic? mk: we were in the top 5 before and now we are in the top 2 or 3! one day we hope to be #1. it's definitely going in the right direction. jh: what is the workflow when designing, developing, and publishing a game? mk: our work processes don't differ significantly from those adopted by other companies. when our producers come up with an idea, they pass it on to the development team. they then implement a prototype of the game, which we first test internally to see how interested we are in developing it further. we do "soft launches" to a small external audience to test the games. we also use different marketing tools during internal testing to assess how the user will play the game. if it successfully passes this stage, we create a plan to support and develop the game—we plan new levels, in-game events that can be timed to national and international holidays, and launch the game. jh: what's your criteria for success? how do you determine if a new game will become a aaa game? mk: we measure the basic metrics of the game. we look at retention metrics: at day 1, 7, 14, 30, etc. based on these metrics, we can predict how many will continue playing the game after 30 days after download. we also look at pay metrics: the number of players who will pay in the game, the number of payments, login frequency, etc. plus, we look at the metrics from our established games and compare them to predict the next aaa game. jh: how long does it take to go from concept to published? mk: at playrix, we want to develop very high-quality games that will bring players joy for a long time, which is why we don't set any internal deadlines for development. it all depends on the specific game—we spend as much time on each title as we need to make it a aaa hit. jh: with all the competition for games, what has been your strategy for discoverability (for a new game) within galaxy store? mk: we use in-store support from the samsung team to show a new game will be visible and promote it at the maximum level in galaxy store. we also use promotional activity outside the store using our resources, such as social channels like instagram and some marketing campaigns. jh: how many downloads/users has gardenscapes had? mk: today, gardenscapes is one of our top hit games—more than 50,000 people play it every day on samsung devices, and the number of mau [monthly active users] has reached 250,000 users. jh: on your website, it says playrix is the 2nd successful mobile game developer in terms of revenue. what has been your strategy for generating revenue? mk: when the game you're working on is fun to play, its financial success depends on two factors—operation and marketing. the most amazing game with the perfect narrative won't succeed without good marketing. however, even if you invest a bunch of resources into marketing a bad game, it will still fail, which is why we pay close attention to both aspects. we're constantly looking for new creative concepts and testing marketing hypotheses, and the metrics tell us that our approach works. we also frequently introduce successful mini-game mechanics into our games that were previously only used in advertising. find out more about playrix in part 2 of this series. additional resources on the samsung developers site the samsung developers site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account and subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the marketing resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps. finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the galaxy ecosystem.
Jeanne Hsu
success story game, mobile, marketplace
blogjeanne hsu, senior marketing manager for developer relations at samsung, chatted with alexander ekvall, co-founder, ceo at snowprint studios about their award-winning game rivengard. jeanne hsu (jh): alexander tell us a little about yourself. alexander ekvall (ae): i’m a lifelong gamer and game maker who has been lucky enough to be able to combine my passion with my career. growing up, games had a profound impact on my life and continue to play an important role now that i have a family of my own. experiencing firsthand how games can provide meaning gave me an incredible source of inspiration and motivation. i hope to be part of developing games and communities that can be meaningful for everyday gamers. jh: what is your role at snowprint studios? ae: i am a co-founder, ceo, and game director which means i have many roles. my main responsibility is to make sure every snowprinter has the best possible environment and conditions to deliver great gaming experiences and the foundations for communities to grow, while also nurturing our company culture/ethos. jh: what was your professional journey that lead you to snowprint studios? ae: since my early teenage years i've been taking every chance i could to develop games, which also heavily influenced my choices in terms of education. during my studies for a msc in computer science, i teamed up with a group of fellow students and we started our own company creating games for palm os, nintendo ds, j2me etc. this was a great team. i have had the pleasure and honor to work with several of the team members since then, some as i started my second company. we had a great run and i got the opportunity to work with an amazing team which led to us being acquired by king. eight months after joining king we had developed and released candy crush, which was followed by another 2.5 fantastic years at king. king is a brilliant game developer, and i learned and grew a lot during my time there. i am forever grateful for being part of the journey at king, and that the stars aligned for my next opportunity. teaming up and reuniting with old colleagues, and new colleagues from their networks, we ventured into mid-core gaming to create new genre-defining experiences in turn-based-battle as snowprint studios. jh: where is snowprint studios located and where do you live? ae: snowprint has offices in stockholm and berlin. we also have people working with us in the u.s. i live in stockholm. jh: how many employees work at snowprint studios? ae: there are 38 total. there are 35 across our two locations: 20 are based in södermalm, the creative heart of stockholm, and another 15 are based in berlin. three snowprinters work remotely from the u.s. jh: so it’s still a small company. sounds like you have some really dedicated people who follow their passion as well. ae: yeah. it’s also one of the cornerstones of what we believe in. our vision is to deliver genre defining turn-based tactic experiences. in order to get there, we have small highly talented and autonomous teams where everyone has a significant and important impact on what reaches our players. this is a great way for us to always keep the player in focus during high level prioritization all the way to the smallest details. jh: how did the relationship with samsung first start? ae: we are constantly looking for the best ways to reach players and we were thrilled when we got the chance to collaborate via an introduction from a mutual friend. for me it is quite simple, galaxy store wants to provide their users with high quality content and we want our games to appear in high quality contexts such as the galaxy store. and it is a huge plus to be working with the talented folks looking after games at samsung! snowprint studios rivengard samsung award jh: congratulations on winning the 2021 best of galaxy store award - best role-playing game for rivengard from snowprint studios. what does it mean to win this award? ae: one does not make games for the awards, but it is a wonderful feeling to have your efforts acknowledged and celebrated. it was definitely a special moment for everyone who worked so hard to bring the game to market. it's also an opportunity for us to show players, who haven't gotten to experience rivengard yet, that this is the best role-playing game (rpg) experience released in 2021! which, in turn, will help bring more players in to join our great community! jh: in what ways have you promoted winning the award? ae: we proudly shared the award with our community, in discord and on social media. and of course, it’s featured on our websites for the game and on our snowprint site. jh: what is the history of the snowprint studios franchise? ae: we first opened our doors in stockholm on april 20, 2015, with a team of old friends and colleagues who had amassed great experiences from all different parts of the industry, including key positions on the largest franchises ranging from casual mobile to aaa pc/console and game engines. we united around the idea that with the unique set of combined experiences within this team, we were in a strong position to bring genre defining turn-based battle games to a massive audience on mobile. this is a genre we've loved playing and see as underserved in the market. since our founding, we've developed two games based on the above idea. the first is legend of solgard with a puzzle-tactic core mechanic that goes beyond the traditional match-3. our second title, rivengard, tailors and evolves the classic hex-based tactic core mechanics for a premium mobile gaming experience. both games feature intense tactical battles and slick ui set in fantastical worlds inhabited by extraordinary characters. our games let players progress through story driven campaigns, partake in events, battle each other and collaborate in guilds to take down massive bosses; all of which are enhanced by the communities being an integral part of the experience. we have been lucky to be able to continue to grow the team with amazing talent and open our second studio in berlin, which is where rivengard is developed. in addition to the continued development of legend of solgard and rivengard, we are now developing our third game, warhammer 40,000: tacticus. we are working hard to live up to, and go beyond, the expectations of such a beloved ip and deliver a premiere warhammer 40,000 experience. jh: how did you come up with the concept of the war of the five gods for rivengard? ae: we were looking for a good way to divide up our heroes and factions and get an understandable system for how they might relate to each other gameplay-wise. we also wanted to go beyond simple good vs. evil, especially since rivengard is a game where players would collect all kinds of heroes, from all factions, rather than picking a side. with five heroes being the standard lineup in our core game and five being a magic number mechanically (rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock) this was a good place to start. structuring the world and the factions around five different world views or philosophies that also inform their relationship with each other felt like a perfect fit. jh: it’s amazing that rivengard launched back in jan 21, 2021, and has grown so quickly. what do you attribute to the game’s success? ae: gamers appreciate new experiences and new challenges to overcome, and they know when a development team appreciates their feedback. we have a very active community and dedicated players that bring their friends to the game, along with marvelous player ambassadors who help us improve the game with every update. jh: what made the game unique from other rpgs? ae: the unique aspect of rivengard comes from our mission of perfecting turn-based tactics for mobile, achieving real tactical gameplay through swift and snappy battles with an exceptional level of polish. this allows for challenging and rewarding battles that can be completed in minutes instead of half an hour or more, delivering an approachable experience with depth to last for years. jh: snowprint studios wants to “create rich experiences for the everyday gamer!” how has that guided the execution of your games? ae: first, it’s about knowing your audience. we make games for people like ourselves, people who play games every day as part of our lives. we love to talk about games, dissect them, discuss and argue over them, and play them with our friends. games are a passion and a part of our identity, so we want to do amazing things for people who feel the same way. next, we want to make games that fit into busy lives, but can also be enjoyed for a few hours while sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee. we all remember marathon gaming sessions with our friends and we still enjoy that, but it’s good to have something with the same energy that fits in our pockets. that’s why we aim to bring real depth and richness to the mobile platform. we can’t count on big cinematics to impress people, not on a screen that you hold in your hand. so while we pride ourselves on making gorgeously detailed art and design, the big thing we try to do is to create the opportunities to have experiences. real wow moments, where you were down to your last hit points but had the chance to pull off a clever strategy. or chances to work with your friends and execute a plan that couldn’t have succeeded without everyone’s efforts. and we always want there to be a feeling of discovery, the sense that there’s something new around every corner. game ideas, discoverability, and reach jh: how many games has snowprint studios published on galaxy store? ae: legend of solgard and rivengard are the two games available around the world on galaxy store. jh: where do you get game ideas? ae: everywhere! as with other art forms, inspiration is not in short supply. our experiences, our friends and family, our cultures, other games, and our player communities all have something to add. jh: how long does it take to go from concept to published? ae: how long is a piece of string? 😉 it really depends on how much iteration the basic concept needs, and then much depends on the early testing. sometimes it can be quite quick, a matter of months. other games take years to come to fruition. for the types of games we are focusing on, the development time until global launch tends to be at least 18 months. jh: with all the competition for games, what has been your strategy for discoverability? ae: we work very hard on performance-based marketing, but grass roots development is very important to us. if someone who loves the game brings a friend to the table, their friend is a lot more likely to love the game than someone who saw an ad. jh: what platform do you use to develop your games? ae: we develop our games using the unity game engine. jh: what has been your strategy for generating revenue? ae: first, make sure that we have an amazing game that continuously keeps providing new and valuable experiences; by focusing on this, we deliver experiences that players will want to pay for. jh: what challenges have you faced when it comes to designing, publishing or marketing? ae: we are in a highly competitive part of the market, competing with companies sitting on huge marketing budgets where breaking through requires much more than a great game. but it’s not a bad thing that we need to be as creative in our marketing as in our game development! we need to leverage the design, publishing and marketing all together. in the early days we were very focused on the design of the game and worked with partners for some of the areas of publishing and marketing. we have since then transitioned into an independent studio working on all three of these areas in unison and we are now getting closer to having the stars aligned. a related challenge is to find the best way to operate our games in regions that are outside of our area of expertise. jh: how do you source your music? ae: everything in rivengard and legend of solgard has been made in-house. but we also work together with partners for some of the sound effects and might look to them for music too. jh: why is it important to offer your game on galaxy store? ae: we want to go wherever players are, and we’ve seen more and more samsung players joining our communities. we’re delighted to have them. feedback and advice jh: you mentioned you’re in touch with the players. how do they give you feedback? is there a regular channel? ae: we have the usual forums and facebook groups for the social aspects of it. but we also have a very active group on more direct chats such as discord. we also invite our more engaged players into our ambassador program; we stay in close touch with the players, have them play test builds and test out new features to obtain input before we go live to the larger population. jh: what advice would you give developers looking to bring their games to galaxy store? ae: that's a good question. we want our games to be where players are. we want to be associated with high quality standards. and we want as many opportunities as possible to reach players to give them great experiences. the samsung store is a good fit for all of those things. and it's not that big of an extra effort to get on galaxy store. all our interactions with the team at galaxy store have been great as well. we are there and we think you should be there too. jh: what is in the future for snowprint studios? ae: we’ll continue to operate and develop innovative, interesting, deep turn-based tactics for as long as people want to play them. and continue to develop or games in a direction where the players are a more integral part of the experiences, there is a lot of interesting opportunities here! jh: what are some of the ways you promote rivengard? ae: here are our websites and channels: website: https://snowprintstudios.com/ website: https://snowprintstudios.com/rivengard/ facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rivengard.game/ discord: https://discord.gg/tnneu3mn2x youtube & videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0fenioojmo company culture and fun jh: what is snowprint studios doing related to diversity and inclusion? ae: we find a lot of value in having a diverse team to get as many different kinds of inputs and angles that influence the gaming experience. we are also very focused on kind of getting the best functional teams together. so in our hiring, we work on being as inclusive and open as possible when we create the job listings, our postings, and design our ads. jh: how do you promote fun with your teams? ae: the main thing is we have our snow day where we get together and combine work and fun. it's basically like our conference. we look at the big picture and ask where are we heading? are we going in the right direction? we take a look at our ethos, we discuss our ethos, and we refine it. and we also kind of just have fun together, do a bunch of different activities that we plan out each year. so it's new activities for each snow day, including escape rooms, vr, or gaming competitions. jh: escape rooms? that sounds really fun. is it virtual? ae: no, we’ve done real escape rooms. and also the kind where there was a big hall where you could go on a vr adventure. although, this was before the pandemic. jh: sounds like you’re keeping the team together. ae: yes, we try. it’s definitely a challenge during covid. before covid, we used to do spontaneous gaming get-togethers at the office. “who wants to stick around for this gaming session or board game?” that’s hard to replicate during covid. jh: what do you do for fun outside of work? ae: besides playing games? 😀 i love seeking out new types of experiences that i can grow from. in more recent years that has included jet skiing (wave runner) and fpv [first person view] drones. finding opportunities to enjoy new experiences with family and friends is the best combination. jh: thank you for your time alexander. congratulations again to your team! ae: you’re welcome and thank you! be sure to also follow us on @samsung_dev to keep up-to-date on the latest developer news, and keep an eye on our blogs for other helpful resources. you can also sign up for the samsung developer program to take advantage of exclusive benefits and access helpful developer resources.
Jeanne Hsu
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