This week, Google is cuddling developers. After really announcing new features for its Google Play Games services, the company is now rolling out a new version of Google Play Services, featuring three new sets of API as well as improvements to old ones.
Although Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager have been around for a while, Google is now pushing them to the forefront. Most developers might already be familiar with how the Analytics API can be used to get deeper information on how their audience use their apps. Google Tag Manager might be a bit harder to guess but it is a feature that lets developers modify parts of their apps on the fly, without having to roll out an entire app update, which might take some time. New to most ears will be the Address API which, as you might have guessed, gives developers access to addresses. This offers users the convenience in filling out forms without having to rely on Location data, which might not be the same as the address they want to use.
There are also some additional features to existing API as well. As reported earlier today, the Google Play Games gets support for virtual gifting, multiplayer on iOS, and the Unity game development platform. Coming by way of this update are improvements to the Drive API which was just released in last month’s update. New features include the ability to pin folders for offline access, creating folders that is invisible to users and are only accessible by the app, as well as callback notifications so that developers won’t have to manually query Google Drive just to check if a file or folder has changed.
End users need not worry about this update, as everything will be updated in the background, no intervention necessary. Developers in the crowd might have to wait just a wee bit for the rollout to complete before they start downloading the new Google Play Services SDK.
SOURCE: Google
