If mobile apps are part of your marketing strategy, there is recent news that may be quite significant to your Android app developer. As TechCrunch reported on Wednesday, Google has rolled out a number of new tools and features for Android app developers. Particularly prominent among these are features that allow developers to force users to update apps, either by barring them from using outmoded versions or by updating in the background while the older version is still in use.

The article indicates that the typical Android app development is likely to capitalize on this option at some point. It is something that people have been asking for, for a long time. Even if you yourself are not an Android app developer, it’s probably not difficult for you to imagine the problems that might be presented to your marketing strategy if users are allowed to continue running all different versions of a promotional app.

One such problem is the risk of user experiencing being degraded by uncorrected bugs. As TechCrunch notes, it’s virtually inevitable that some apps will need fixes after their initial premiere. While you should certainly hold your Android app developer to a high standard, no one is infallible in this regard, and apps often require some beta testing by the public before they are properly fine-tuned.

The new forced-update features could allow your Android app developer to carry out this testing without the risk of long-term consequences for users’ perception of the app and, by extension, your company. But both you and your Android app developer must resist any impulse to view the features as carte blanche to roll out an incomplete app and fiddle with it along the way. This, too, would certainly influence public perceptions of whatever that app is promoting, especially if the updates are intrusive. It’s for certain that some users would conclude that the app is unusable, and dispense with it altogether.

For this reason, an Android app developer and its clients should carefully consider how best to take advantage of the forced-update feature. While bugs should still be minimized ahead of time, it may no longer be necessary to fix every major feature of your app in place. With little to no danger of multiple versions being used at the same time, developers may find themselves with new opportunities to enhance user experience over time, upgrading apps regularly in order to keep up with changes in the businesses they are promoting.

If you are the client of an Android app developer, you may wish to have a conversation with them over this new development in the industry. In the wrong hands, forced-update features could pose additional risks. But in the right hands, they present a significant opportunity for more effective beta testing and enhanced long-term user experience. With that in mind, now is as good a time as any to examine your Android app developer and make sure they have both the skill and the vision to take full advantage of these sorts of changes.