To develop an app using Google Play services APIs, set up your project with the relevant SDKs, which are available from the Google maven repository.
For more detailed instructions, view the Android Studio page about how to update the SDK tools that your app project uses.
To test your app when using Google Play services, you must use one of the following:
- A compatible Android device that runs Android 4.1 (API level 16) or higher and has the Google Play Store app installed.
- The Android emulator with an AVD that runs the Google APIs platform based on Android 4.2.2 (API level 17) or higher.
Declare dependencies for Google Play services
To develop features that depend on the Google Play services APIs in your app, complete the following steps:
Open the
build.gradlefile inside your app's module directory.For each SDK that your app requires, include the dependency for that SDK. This page includes a section that lists common Google Play services dependencies for Android apps. You might also want to add Firebase dependencies to your project.
Save the changes and sync your project.
The following snippet shows an example build.gradle file that uses the
location library:
apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
...
dependencies {
implementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:18.0.0'
}
New versions of the Google Play services SDKs with bug fixes and new features are periodically released. These updates are announced in the release notes. If your app uses a dependency that has been updated, change to the latest version in your app's dependencies to take advantage of these fixes.
Check whether Google Play services is installed
As described in the Google Play services overview, Google Play services receives automatic updates on Android 4.1 (API level 16) and higher through the Google Play Store app. However, Android devices without Google Play Store don't have Google Play services installed. If your app runs on devices without Google Play services, you might want to check to see if Google Play services is installed on the device before you attempt to use Google APIs, or enable features in your app that require Google Play services to function.
To check for the presence of Google Play services on the device, use the
isGooglePlayServicesAvailable()
method.
To then begin a connection to Google Play services, or learn how to detect whether the version of Google Play services installed supports a specific API, read the guide on Accessing Google APIs.
List of Google Play services dependencies
Table 1 contains the set of dependencies powered by Google Play services, which you can include in your app:
| Use case | Dependency name |
|---|---|
| Google Mobile Ads | com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:20.0.0 |
| Android Advertising ID (AAID) | com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-identifier:17.0.0 |
| Lightweight version of Google Mobile Ads | com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-lite:20.0.0 |
| AdSense for Search (AFS) Custom Search Ads (CSA) | com.google.android.gms:play-services-afs-native:18.1.0 |
| Google Analytics Services SDK for Android | com.google.android.gms:play-services-analytics:17.0.0 |
| Google Sign-In for Android | com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:19.0.0 |
| SMS Retriever API | com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth-api-phone:17.5.0 |
| Google Awareness API | com.google.android.gms:play-services-awareness:18.0.1 |
| Utility classes | com.google.android.gms:play-services-base:17.6.0 |
| More utility classes | com.google.android.gms:play-services-basement:17.6.0 |
| Google Cast | com.google.android.gms:play-services-cast:19.0.0 |
| Google Cast Application Framework (CAF) | com.google.android.gms:play-services-cast-framework:19.0.0 |
| Android TV Receivers | com.google.android.gms:play-services-cast-tv:17.0.0 |
| Chromium network stack (Cronet) | com.google.android.gms:play-services-cronet:17.0.0 |
| Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) Authentication | com.google.android.gms:play-services-fido:19.0.0-beta |
| Google Fit API for Android | com.google.android.gms:play-services-fitness:20.0.0 |
| Google Play Games Services for Android | com.google.android.gms:play-services-games:21.0.0 |
| Google Play Instant | com.google.android.gms:play-services-instantapps:17.0.0 |
| Fused Location Provider for Android (includes activity recognition and geofencing) | com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:18.0.0 |
| Google Maps SDK for Android | com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:17.0.0 |
| ML Kit barcode scanning | com.google.android.gms:play-services-mlkit-barcode-scanning:16.1.4 |
| ML Kit face detection | com.google.android.gms:play-services-mlkit-face-detection:16.1.3 |
| ML Kit image labeling | com.google.android.gms:play-services-mlkit-image-labeling:16.0.2 |
| ML Kit text recognition | com.google.android.gms:play-services-mlkit-text-recognition:16.1.3 |
| Nearby device discovery and connection | com.google.android.gms:play-services-nearby:17.0.0 |
| Show open-source licenses | com.google.android.gms:play-services-oss-licenses:17.0.0 |
| Screen lock quality check | com.google.android.gms:play-services-password-complexity:17.0.0 |
| reCAPTCHA Enterprise for app instrumentation | com.google.android.gms:play-services-recaptcha:16.0.0 |
| SafetyNet APIs | com.google.android.gms:play-services-safetynet:17.0.0 |
| Google Tag Manager | com.google.android.gms:play-services-tagmanager:17.0.0 |
| Tasks API on Android | com.google.android.gms:play-services-tasks:17.2.1 |
| Mobile Vision | com.google.android.gms:play-services-vision:20.1.3 |
| Google Pay for Payments on Android | com.google.android.gms:play-services-wallet:18.1.2 |
| Wearable Data Layer API | com.google.android.gms:play-services-wearable:17.0.0 |
Gradle plugins
Google Play services also includes several Gradle plugins, as shown in Table 2:
| Use case | Gradle plugin name |
|---|---|
| Show open-source licenses | com.google.android.gms:oss-licenses-plugin:0.10.4 |
| Strict version checking | com.google.android.gms:strict-version-matcher-plugin:1.2.2 |