Google Updates Play Services, Adds Turn-based Multiplayer, Google Drive API

Google updates Play Services, adds turn-based multiplayer, Google Drive API

BY Kelly Hodgkins

Kelly Hodgkins

...

All Articles by Kelly Hodgkins

Published 9 Jan 2014

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Google updated Google Play Services to version 4.1, bringing a handful of new features to developers and Android users alike. The update is rolling out gradually to users.

The biggest improvements in Play Services 4.1 is support for turn-based multiplayer. Developers can now build asynchronous games that support from between 2 to 8 players. Other new features include

Google Drive: Play Services 4.1 now includes a Google Drive API that’ll let developers read from and write to Google Drive.

Google Mobile Ads: Google Mobile Ads now supports location, allowing users to get location-aware ads. In addition, the SDK now supports DoubleClick for Publishers, DoubleClick Ad Exchange, and Search Ads for Mobile Apps.

Google +: Developers can now take advantage of improved auto-complete and a new suggested recipients that pulls info from Gmail contacts, device contacts and Google +.

Battery Life: users who enable Google Location Reporting will see improved battery life.

As soon as the rollout of Play Services 4.1 is complete, the SDK will be available for developers to download.