Set up Google Play services  |  Google for Developers (2024)

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To develop an app using Google Play servicesAPIs, follow the instructions on this page to setup your project with the relevant SDKs, which are available from theGoogle maven repository.

To test your app when using Google Play services, you must use one of thefollowing:

• A compatible Android device that runs Android 5.0 (APIlevel 21) or higher and has the Google Play Store appinstalled.
• The Android emulator with anAVD that runs the Google APIsplatform based on Android 5.0 (API level 21) or higher.

Declare dependencies for Google Play services

To develop features that depend on the Google Play services APIs in your app,complete the following steps:

1. Open the build.gradle file inside your app's module directory.

2. For each SDK that your app requires, include the dependency for that SDK.This page includes a section that lists common Google Play servicesdependencies for Android apps. You might also want to addFirebase dependencies to yourproject.

3. Save the changes and sync yourproject.

The following snippet shows an example build.gradle file that uses thelocation library:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'...dependencies { implementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:21.2.0'}

New versions of the Google Play services SDKs with bug fixes and new featuresare periodically released. These updates are announced in the releasenotes. If your app uses a dependency that has beenupdated, change to the latest version in your app's dependencies to takeadvantage of these fixes.

Check whether Google Play services is installed

As described in the Google Play services overview,Google Play services receives automatic updates on Android5.0 (API level 21) and higherthrough the Google Play Store app. However, Android devices without Google PlayStore don't have Google Play services installed. If your app runs on deviceswithout Google Play services, you might want to check to see if Google Playservices is installed on the device before you attempt to use Google APIs, orenable features in your app that require Google Play services to function.

To check for the presence of Google Play services on the device, use theisGooglePlayServicesAvailable()method.

To then begin a connection to Google Play services, or learn how to detectwhether the version of Google Play services installed supports a specific API,read the guide on Accessing Google APIs.

Google Play services dependencies

The following table lists the dependencies for Google Play services that you caninclude in your Android app. You can filter the list by device type by selectingone of the buttons, and you can search for a specific use case or dependencyname by entering text into the box that appears after the buttons.

Gradle plugins

Google Play services also includes several Gradle plugins, as shown in thefollowing table. Note that the buttons that appear before the previous tabledon't change the information that appears in this table.