android_frameworks_base/docs/html/google/play-services/index.jd

page.title=Google Play Services
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  <h1 itemprop="name" style="margin-bottom:0;">Google Play Services</h1>
  <p itemprop="description">Give your apps more features to attract users
  on a wider range of devices.
  With Google Play services, your app can take advantage
  of the latest, Google-powered features such as Maps, Google+, and more,
  with automatic platform updates distributed as an APK through
  the Google Play store. This makes it faster for your users to receive updates
  and easier for you to integrate the newest that Google has to offer.
  </p>

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<h4>Google Technology</h4>
<p>Google Play services provides you with easy access to Google services and is
tightly integrated with the Android OS. Easy-to-use client libraries are
provided for each service that let you implement the functionality you want
easier and faster.</p>

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<h4>Standard Authorization</h4>
<p>All products in Google Play services share a common authorization API
  that leverages the existing Google accounts on the device. You and your
  users have a consistent and safe way to grant and receive OAuth2 access tokens
  to Google services.</p>

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<h4>Automatic Updates</h4>
<p>Devices running Android 2.3 or higher that have the Google Play Store
app will automatically receive updates to Google Play services. Enhance
your app with the most recent version of Google Play services without worrying
about your users' Android version.</p>

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   <p>To start integrating Google Play services into your app,
   follow the <a href="/google/play-services/setup.html">Setup</a> guide.</p>

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<h2 style="margin-top:0" id="newfeatures">New Features</h2>

<div class="toggle-content opened">
  <p><a href="#" onclick="return toggleContent(this)">
    <img src="{@docRoot}assets/images/triangle-opened.png"
    class="toggle-content-img"
      alt=""/>Google Play services, Version 5.0</a> <em>(July 2014)</em>
  </p>

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<dl>
<dt>Highlights in Version 5.0</dt>

<dd>
<p>For a summary of the feature highlights in Google Play services 5.0, see the
announcement
<a href="http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2014/07/google-play-services-5.html"
class="external-link">blog post</a>.</p>
<ul>
  <li><strong>Analytics</strong> - The Enhanced Ecommerce API allows your app
to send product related information and actions to Google Analytics. Use this
API to measure impressions of products seen by users, checkout steps, and
products purchased. This information can be analyzed for the effectiveness of
marketing and merchandising efforts, including the impact of internal
promotions, coupons, and affiliate marketing programs.
  <ul>
    <li><a href="https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v4/enhanced-ecommerce.html" class="external-link">Enhanced Ecommerce developer guide</a></li>
    <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/analytics/ecommerce/package-summary.html">Enhanced Ecommerce API reference</a></li>
  </ul>
  </li>

  <li><strong>App Indexing</strong> - The App Indexing API provides a way
for developers to notify Google about deep links in their native apps and
allows the Google Search App, version 3.6 and above, to drive re-engagement
through Google Search
<a href="https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/106230"
class="external-link">query autocompletions</a>, providing fast and easy access to
inner pages in apps.
  <ul>
    <li><a href="https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/webmasters/appindexingapi.html"
class="external-link">App Indexing developer guide</a></li>
    <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/appindexing/package-summary.html">App
Indexing API reference</a></li>
  </ul>
  </li>

  <li><strong>Drive</strong> - The Query APIs now allow your app to retrieve
Drive files by sorted order, according to a developer-specified sorting criteria.
    <ul>
      <li><a href="https://developers.google.com/drive/android/queries.html"
class="external-link">Queries developer guide</a></li>
      <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/drive/query/package-summary.html">Sortable
queries API reference</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>

  <li><strong>Play Games</strong> - This release introduces the Quests and
Saved Games services. The Quests service gives you the ability to issue
time-bound in-game challenges based on Events data sent from your game, without
republishing your game (for example:  Your game sends an event each time a
“gem” is found by a player, and you create a quest to “Find 20 gems”). Players
can complete a quest to earn rewards. Saved Games offers improved functionality
for saving game state information and visually displaying player game progression.
    <ul>
    <li><a href="https://developers.google.com/games/services/android/quests.html"
class="external-link">Events and Quests developer guide</a></li>
    <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/games/event/package-summary.html">Events
API reference</a></a></li>
    <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/games/quest/package-summary.html">Quests
API reference</a></a></li>
    <li><a href="https://developers.google.com/games/services/android/savedgames.html"
class="external-link">Saved Games developer guide</a></li>
    <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/games/snapshot/package-summary.html">Saved
Games API reference</a></a></li>
  </ul>
  </li>

  <li><strong>Security</strong> - The Security API allows you to easily
install a dynamic security provider. New versions of Google Play Services will
keep the security provider up-to-date with the latest security fixes as those
become available.
    <ul>
      <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/security/package-summary.html">Security
API reference</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>

    <li><strong>Wallet</strong> - The Save to Google API for Android lets users
save Wallet Objects to their Google Wallet with the click of a button displayed
in your Android app.
    <ul>
      <li><a href="https://developers.google.com/wallet/objects/savetowalletnative.html"
class="external-link">Save to Google API for Android tutorial</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>


    <li><strong>Wearables</strong> - The Wearable Data Layer API provides a
    communication channel between your handheld and wearable apps. The API
    consists of a set of data objects that the system can send and synchronize
    and listeners that notify your apps of important events from the other
    device.
    <ul>
      <li><a href="{@docRoot}training/wearables/apps/index.html">Building
Wearable Apps training class</a></li>
      <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/wearable/package-summary.html">Wearables
API reference</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>

</ul>
</dd>
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  <p><a href="#" onclick="return toggleContent(this)">
    <img src="{@docRoot}assets/images/triangle-closed.png" class="toggle-content-img"
      alt=""/>Google Play services, Version 4.4</a> <em>(May 2014)</em>
  </p>

  <div class="toggle-content-toggleme">
<dl>
<dt>Highlights in Version 4.4</dt>

<dd>
<p>For a summary of the feature highlights in Google Play services 4.4, see the
announcement <a href="http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2014/05/google-play-services-44.html" class="external-link">blog post</a>.</p>
<ul>
  <li><strong>Maps</strong> - New features for Street View and enhanced control of
  Indoor Maps.
  <ul>
    <li><a href="http://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/android/streetview.html" class="external-link">Street View developer guide</a> - Add Street View to your app and programmatically control
      the user’s experience.
    <li><a href="http://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/android/map.html#indoor_maps" class="external-link">Indoor Maps developer guide</a> - Customize the level picker
      and specify the active level of a building.</a>
  </ul>
  </li>

  <li><strong>Activity recognition</strong> - The Location API has been updated with new activity detectors for running and walking.
    <ul>
      <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/location/DetectedActivity.html"><code>DetectedActivity</code> class reference</a>
    </ul>
  </li>

  <li><strong>Mobile Ads</strong> - The new in-app purchase APIs allow
    publishers to display in-app purchase ads, which enables users to purchase
    advertised items directly.
    <ul>
      <li><a href="https://developers.google.com/mobile-ads-sdk/docs/admob/advanced#play-inapppurchaselistener" class="external-link">In-app purchase APIs developer guide</a> -
        Enable in-app purchases via ads by using the in-app purchase APIs.
      <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/ads/purchase/package-summary.html">In-app purchase API reference</a>
    </ul>
  </li>

  <li><strong>Wallet Fragment</strong> - The new Wallet Fragment API allows you
    to easily integrate Google Wallet Instant Buy with an existing app.
    <ul>
    <li><a href="http://developers.google.com/wallet/instant-buy/android/tutorial.html#about_walletfragment" class="external-link">About Wallet Fragment</a> - Tutorial showing how to
      use wallet fragment to handle user events and to automate key parts of the purchase lifecycle.
    <li><a href="http://developers.google.com/wallet/instant-buy/diagrams.html#detailed_api_process_flow" class="external-link">Detailed API process flow</a></a>
  </ul>
  </li>
</ul>
</dd>
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  <p><a href="#" onclick="return toggleContent(this)">
    <img src="{@docRoot}assets/images/triangle-closed.png" class="toggle-content-img"
      alt=""/>Google Play services, Version 4.3</a> <em>(March 2014)</em>
  </p>

  <div class="toggle-content-toggleme">
<dl>
<dt>Highlights in Version 4.3</dt>
<dd>
<p>For a summary of the feature highlights in Google Play services 4.3, see the
announcement <a href="http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2014/03/google-play-services-43.html" class="external-link">blog post</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Play Games</strong> - The new Game Gifts API enables games to send virtual in-game requests to anyone in a player’s circles or through player search.
   <ul>
      <li><a href="http://developers.google.com/games/services/android/giftRequests.html" class="external-link">Developing Game Gifts in Android</a></li>
      <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/games/request/package-summary.html">Game Gifts API reference</a></li>
   </ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Analytics</strong> - Google Analytics and Tag Manager are now part of Google Play services.
   <ul>
      <li><a href="http://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/android/v4/" class="external-link">Getting Started with the Analytics API in Android</a></li>
      <li><a href="/reference/com/google/android/gms/analytics/package-summary.html">Analytics API reference</a></li>
      <li><a href="http://developers.google.com/tag-manager/android/" class="external-link">Getting Started with the Tag Manager API in Android</a></li>
      <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/tagmanager/package-summary.html">Tag Manager API reference</a></li>
   </ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Drive</strong> - Change notifications, offline content, and more.
   <ul>
      <li><a href="http://developers.google.com/drive/android/pinning.html" class="external-link">Pinning Files</a> - Make files available offline.</li>
      <li><a href="http://developers.google.com/drive/android/events.html" class="external-link">Listening for Change Events</a> - Receive notifications for change events asynchronously.</li>
      <li><a href="http://developers.google.com/drive/android/appfolder.html" class="external-link">Storing Application Data</a> - Store application data in a special hidden folder.</li>
   </ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Address</strong> - Let your users provide complete addresses in a single click.
   <ul>
      <li><a href="{@docRoot}reference/com/google/android/gms/identity/intents/package-summary.html">Address API reference</a> </li>
   </ul>
</li>
</ul>
</dd>
</dl>
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<h2>How It Works</h2>

<h4 id="client-lib">The Google Play services client library</h4>
<p>
    The client library contains the interfaces to the individual Google
    services and allows you to obtain authorization from users to gain access
    to these services with their credentials. It also contains APIs that allow
    you to resolve any issues at  runtime, such as a missing, disabled, or out-of-date
    Google Play services APK. The client library has a light footprint if you use
    <a href="/tools/help/proguard.html">ProGuard</a> as part of your build process, so it won't have
    an adverse impact on your app's file size.
</p>
<p>
    If you want to access added features or products, you can upgrade to a new version of the
    client library as they are released. However, upgrading is not
    necessary if you don't care about new features or bug fixes.
    We anticipate more Google services to be continuously added, so be on the lookout for
    these updates.
</p>

<div class="vspace size-2">&nbsp;</div>

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  <div class="layout-content-col span-6">
    <h4 id="apk">The Google Play services APK</h4>
    <p>
        The Google Play services APK contains the individual Google services and runs
        as a background service in the Android OS. You interact with the background service
        through the client library and the service carries out the actions on your behalf.
        An easy-to-use authorization flow is also
        provided to gain access to the each Google service, which provides consistency for both
        you and your users.
    </p>
    <p>
      The Google Play services APK is delivered through the Google Play Store, so
      updates to the services are not dependent on carrier or OEM system image updates. In general, devices
      running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or later and have the Google Play Store app installed receive updates within a
      few days. This allows you to use the newest APIs in Google Play services and reach most of the
      devices in the Android ecosystem (devices older than Android 2.3 or devices without the Google
      Play Store app are not supported).
    </p>
  </div>

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    <img src="/images/play-services-diagram.png" />
    <p class="img-caption"><em>The Google Play services APK on user devices receives regular updates
    for new APIs, features, and bug fixes.</em></p>
  </div>
</div>

<h4 id="benefits">The benefits for your app</h4>

<p>Google Play services gives you the freedom to use the newest APIs for popular
Google services without worrying about device support. Updates to Google Play
services are distributed automatically by the Google Play Store and new versions
of the client library are delivered through the Android SDK Manager. This makes it
easy for you to focus on what's important: your users' experience.</p>

<p>To get started, <a href="{@docRoot}google/play-services/setup.html">set up</a> the SDK and check out
the various products in the Google Play services platform now!</p>