Chapter 12Using Google Play Services

Google Play Services is an add-on to the Android framework that can be found on any Android device that uses the Google Play Store.

From its humble beginnings as a way to get access to Google’s authorization and Google+ social network, Google Play Services has grown to include a huge array of features, including many that were originally part of the base Android framework. These include:

  • Location services

  • Game services

  • In-app purchases

  • Ads

  • Mobile analytics

  • Maps

  • Push messages

  • Cloud save

  • …and more.

All Google Play Services are similar in the way you include them in your apps, configure, and call them. Therefore, learning about one service will get you halfway there to using all of them.

This chapter will introduce ...

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