Google has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a court dispute between app developers over the money they earned creating aps for Android smartphones.

The developers had accused Google of using agreements with smartphone makers, technical barriers and revenue sharing agreements to shutter the app ecosystem and kettle most payments through its Google Play billing system with a default service fee of 30 per cent.

Google said in a blog post that as part of the proposed settlement, it would put $90 million in a fund to support app developers who made $2 million or less in annual revenue from 2016-2021.

In addition to the fund, Google said it would maintain a number of existing practices and implement new benefits to help developers to innovate and communicate with their users.

The propositions included a revision of the Developer Distribution Agreement, making it clear that developers can continue to use contact information obtained in-app to communicate with users out-of-app.

New versions of the Android operating system will also make it easier for people to use other app stores beyond Google Play on their devices, said the tech giant.

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