Google today announced that it's now rolling out Google Play Services 4.1, an update that includes a new feature for Google Play Games as well as some other goodies for developers to tinker with. Here's what Google has crammed into the latest version of Play Services:
- Turn-Based Multiplayer: Developers can now include turn-based multiplayer in their games, allowing anywhere from two to eight players per game. When a turn is taken, the information is uploaded to Play Services and automagically sent to other players.
- Google Drive: Developer preview of new Google Drive API for Android that includes the ability to read and write files so that they're available on devices and the web. Users can also work offline and have their changes automatically synced when they reconnect.
- Google Mobile Ads: Google Mobile Ads SDK supports DoubleClick for Publishers, DoubleClick Ad Exchange, and Search Ads for Mobile Apps. Devs can also use a new publisher-provided location API to deliver a location to Google when requesting ads, which can help to improve app monetization.
- Google+: Improvements to Google+ sharing includes better auto-complete and suggested recipients that are pulled from Gmail and device contacts as well as Google+.
Most of that may not mean much to non-developers, but there is one other piece of the Google Play Services 4.1 update that should appeal to all Android users. Google says that the update improves battery life for all users with Google Location Reporting enabled. I think that we can all get behind better battery life, right? Right. If you're an Android developer or just someone that's got an interest in the inner workings of Google's Play Services, you can read up on this latest update by hovering your cursor above the link below and clicking away.
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