Gamers in particular are used to the act of pre-ordering an upcoming software release, in-fact pre-download is becoming the norm as games grow in size.  This isn’t such an issue with mobile software, but with the amount of releases coming out daily it’s easy for users to miss-out on something they’ve been looking forward to.

If your users are on Android, they can now pre-register their interest for an upcoming release to be notified when it’s ready to go. Users are also not committed to buying it after release, allowing them to be alerted but retain the ability to cancel if they change their mind.

Google has been implementing a few new features to their Play Store

The first game to take advantage of Google’s new feature is Terminator Genisys: Revolution from hit developer Glu Mobile – who recently took significant investment from China’s Tencent. In order for users to register their interest, a new icon is shown where the ‘Download’ button would usually be located.

Of course most developers want to get their apps out-the-door as soon as they’re created to start monetising from their hard work, but it’s a feature which could be useful to those who wish to drum up hype or to time with another release (as is the case with the Terminator game which is set to tie-in with the movie release.)

In the run-up to I/O, Google has been implementing a few new features to their Play Store which are useful to developers. Last week we reported that Google has started to implement A/B testing for app store pages to see which version performs better with users and leads to higher engagement.

We’re sure to see most of the biggest new features at Google’s annual developer conference later this month – including the announcement of Android M. I/O runs between May 28 – 29th and we will keep you updated with all important developments during the event.

Do you think other app stores should allow users to pre-register their interest? Let us know in the comments.