14 DAY TRIAL // The first day of Google I/O was also one of the busiest for the search giant, given the huge amount of new products that it announced during the keynote.
Google offered glimpses to some of its upcoming products like Android L, Android One, Android TV, Android Auto, just to name a few. Google Drive and Google Play Services have been improved as well and now come with much better features.
We will now be talking about the latter and for those who don’t know what exactly Google Play Services is, here is some info. The application that comes on all Android smartphones, Google Play Services, allows Google to push various services and new features to these devices without having to release an actual OS update.
This is a very important application that comes into play when Google wants to add new features or functionalities to Android OS and they are small enough not to require an update.
The first new feature that Google announced for Play Services is support for Android wearables. Having announced no less than three smartwatches at Google I/O, this feels like a much needed improvement for the future of these gadgets.
Thanks to the newly introduced support for wearables, applications on the smartphone can more easily communicate and sync with code running on smartwatches and other wearables via an “automatically synchronized, persistent data store and a reliable messaging interface.”
Google Cast has been added as well, so you can now use media tracks to enable closed-caption support for Chromecast. The updated version of Google Play Services contains something new called Quests, which allows users to build improved gaming experiences.
Quests allows “event-based challenges for players to complete for rewards, Saved Games (a snapshot API allow synchronization of game data along with a cover-image and description), and Game Profile (providing experience points for players).”
Wallet is another new feature that would allow the creation of a “Save to Wallet” button for various offers directly into an application. Developers can use “geo-fenced in-store notifications to prompt the user to show and scan digital cards.”
According to Google, split tender now allows payment to be split between Wallet Balance and a credit / debit card in Google Wallet.
Developers will also be able to get “insights into the full user journey and understand how different user acquisition campaigns are performing with Enhanced Ecommerce.” This will allow developers to understand and measure product impressions, product clicks, and more.
One of the most important new features included in Google Play Services 5.0 is called Dynamic Security Provider, which offers an alternative to the platform’s secure networking APIs. Thanks to the new feature, these will be updated more frequently for faster delivery of security patches.
Here is the rest of the changelog for Google Play Services 5.0:
Mobile Ads: Use improved in-app purchase ads and integrations for the Play store in-app purchase API client. App Indexing API: Surface deep content in your native mobile applications on Google search and drive additional user engagement.
According to Google, the new version of Play Services will be rolled out automatically in the next several days, but if you want, you can now sideload the Google Play Services 5.0 APK file.