Google Play Services

Google Play Services

Google Play Services icon
Stable release(s)
Android 11.5.09 / August 19, 2017; 20 days ago (2017-08-19) Android TV 11.5.09 / September 1, 2017; 7 days ago (2017-09-01) Android Wear 11.0.47 / May 22, 2017; 3 months ago (2017-05-22)
Preview release(s)
Android 11.6.72 / September 6, 2017; 2 days ago (2017-09-06) Android TV 11.6.72 / August 24, 2017; 15 days ago (2017-08-24) Android Wear 11.3.01 / July 2, 2017; 2 months ago (2017-07-02)

Google Play Services is a proprietary background service and API package for Android devices. When first introduced in 2012, it provided simple access to the Google+ APIs and OAuth 2.0, but since then it has expanded to cover a large variety of Google's services, allowing applications to easily communicate with the services through common means, being internally referred to as simply GMS. As of January 2014, it has been installed more than one billion times on Android devices.

Google Play Game Services can be used by application developers to allow a more competitive and social experience through the use of leaderboards, both public and between friends, achievements and multiplayer sessions. Saved Games API is available to quickly sync game saves on Google's cloud infrastructure as well. The Location APIs abstract away specifics about the location technologies, providing Geofencing APIs for scheduling specific actions upon the user entering or leaving specific geographic boundaries, Fused Location Provider for acquiring location information with as reduced power usage as possible and activity recognition for allowing applications to adapt to the current action of the user (e.g. cycling, walking, etc.).

The Google+ platform provides single sign-on, allowing the user to be automatically authenticated inside applications providing a more personalized experience, and sharing options using Google+. Google Maps Android API allows applications to include Google Maps or Street View without the need to open a separate application, allowing full control over the camera and providing means of adding custom markers and overlays over the map. Google Drive Android API exposes Google Drive to be used as a storage structure, providing easy lookup and syncing of documents along with various other tools for manipulating the files. Google Cast Android API adds casting functionality to allow Android applications to display content on TVs using Google Cast, additionally providing various helpers for common audio, video and image types.