Overview of Google Play services
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Google Play services powers a broad set of SDKs on Android to help you buildyour app, enhance privacy and security, engage users, and grow your business.These SDKs are unique in that they only require a thin client library to beincluded in your app, as shown in figure 1. At runtime, the client librarycommunicates with the bulk of the SDK's implementation and footprint in GooglePlay services.

By providing shared, client-side implementations, Google Play services:

  • Helps to optimize on-device resources, such as storage and memory, to improveapp quality and your users' overallexperience.
  • Receives automatic updates—independent of OS, OEM, or app updates—so yourusers receive improvements and bug fixes more quickly.
  • Powers SDKs that are backward compatible to Android 6.0 (API level 23) and areavailable on a variety of form factors, enabling you to reach more users withless effort.

Lightweight client libraries communicate with Google Play services usingIPC. Google Play services is available on phones, tablets, laptops, TVs, andwatches, as well as in cars.

Figure 1. Google Play services receives regular updates that containimprovements and bug fixes.

How Google Play services works

SDKs

Each SDK powered by Google Play services provides a lightweight client librarythat contains the necessary APIs to interact with its respective service. OtherAPIs allow you to resolve any issues at runtime, such as missing, disabled, orout-of-date services. If you are using Android Studio 3.4 or higher and enablecode shrinking, theR8optimizer can helpfurther reduce the footprint of each SDK and its impact on your app's packagesize.

To access new Google Play services features or products, upgrade the SDK when anew version isreleased to theGoogle Mavenrepository.

Services

Google Play services contains on-device Google services that run in thebackground on every Google-certified Android device.

Automatic updates to Google Play services are delivered independent of carrier,OS, or OEM system image updates. In general, devices running Android 6.0 orhigher receive updates automatically, provided that these devices have GooglePlay services installed and sufficient storage available. This means that usersreceive improvements and bug fixes more quickly, and you can take advantage ofthe latest APIs while reaching most devices in the Android ecosystem. Devicesolder than Android 6.0, or devices without Google Play services installed,aren't supported.

Next steps: set up your app

To begin using Google Play services APIs in your app, read thissetupguide.

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under theCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under theApache 2.0 License. For details, see theGoogle Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2025-03-26 UTC.