What are Trust Levels?
The Google Developer Program forums uses a trust level system that consists of earned trust levels. The earned trust level ladder encourages and recognizes quality contributions to the forums.
Forums members can reach higher earned trust levels by contributing to the forums. For example, by creating new topics, receiving likes, or authoring accepted solutions.
Forums’ trust levels are one way of showing that you are especially passionate and knowledgeable about Google’s products and not just active in the forums, but also helpful.
Having a high trust level can help establish you as a leader, give you more visibility with Googlers, and even open up exclusive opportunities.
Where can I see someone’s Trust Level rank?
A member’s Trust Level is shown on their profile page.
List of Trust Levels
There are 4 Trust Levels as seen below. All new users start at a TL0
- Trust Level 0
- Trust Level 1
- Trust Level 2
- Trust Level 3
Earned Trust Levels
All forums’ members start with the “New Member” Trust Level 0. As you participate in the forums and engage in different activities, you will climb the trust levels.
It’s important to note that trust levels are unlocked by completing a combination of activities and accomplishments, including giving and receiving likes, authoring posts and solutions, and engaging in the comments.
Below, you can see a list of all earned trust levels from lowest to highest and the benefits you can unlock at each level.
- Trust Level 0
- Trust Level 1
- Trust Level 2
- Trust Level 3
How can I level up?
We don’t share the exact formulas and activity criteria for each trust level. This makes things more exciting and ensures that all trust levels are well-deserved and not easily earned by gaming the system.
With that said, we can provide general guidance and tips that will help you level up and reach new heights in the Google Developer Program forums. And remember, trust levels are unlocked by completing a combination of community activities, including giving and receiving likes, authoring posts and solutions, and engaging in the comments.
- Focus on providing quality, helpful responses to Community member questions
- Remember to give likes for helpful responses or posts, and remember to mark a response as an Accepted Solution if it answered your question
- When asking a new question, provide a detailed title and description, including the context and any helpful code snippets or screenshots that will help others understand how to best respond to your question
- Consistency is key! Utilize notifications to be automatically updated when new posts are created about the topics you care about
What are flair icons?
While all forums members have a trust level (either earned or assigned), you’ll see that some members also have a flair icon to signify a unique status, role, or achievement in the broader Google Developer Program forums ecosystem.
Notable assigned groups that you will see throughout the forums will have a flair icon in the lower right corner of their avatar:
Community Manager: Part of the extended Google Developer Program forums team, focused on providing a welcoming, helpful, and safe space for members to meet their goals within the community. Community Managers actively monitor the forums, help ensure Forums Guidelines are followed, and help facilitate community conversations, content, and events.
Google Staff: Forums members who are Googlers have a flair icon, as shown in the image below. This is so all forums members can more quickly and easily recognize who is or who is not a Google employee.
Google Developer Expert: Part of the Google Developer Experts program, these forums’ members are passionate professionals with expertise in Google technology who enjoy continuous learning, sharing knowledge, and making an impact in the forums.
What are the forums badges?
Badges recognize you for your contributions and accomplishments in the forums (e.g. posting, commenting, authoring solutions, receiving and giving likes) without being tied to a trust level.
Badges are unlocked by completing a certain amount of activities, whereas trust levels are tied to completing a combination of activities and accomplishments.
To view the badges you’ve earned, click “Preferences” from the drop-down by your avatar on the top right of the forums.
On your profile page, you can see a high-level overview of badges you’ve earned, including the most recent. Click the “Badges” tab to see all the badges you’ve earned.
You can also see other forums’ members’ badges from their profile pages.
List of badges
As you participate in the forums and reach activity milestones, you’ll unlock earned badges, including authored solutions, posts, comments (replies), ideas, likes received, and likes given.
Here’s an overview of some of the badges available in the Google Developer Program forums today.
| Badge Image | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
 |
Authored Solution | Your reply/post was accepted as a solution in the forums. |
 |
Topic | Received 10 likes on a topic |
 |
Reply | Received 10 likes on a reply |
 |
Likes | This badge is granted the first time you like a post using the  button. |