What is google play-service distribution in android devices version wise? - android

Just like Android give android version distribution worldwide?
I want same way google play-service distribution.
On the website, Google mentioned the only year of release.
Actually, we are using google map in our app so we wanted to confirm what should be our minimum play-services version so that it should work even if the user has not updated play-services.
My app minimum version is 15.

Afaik there is no official maintained distribution information like for the different Android OS versions.
But there are some hints about the distribution:
In 2014, Sundar Pichai made an official statement about the play services in the Developers keynote:
"Google Play Services ships every six weeks and 93% of our users are on the latest version of Google Play services across all versions of Android. In fact by shipping every six weeks we can, in many ways, iterate faster than the typical OS release cycle."
You can watch that on youtube, at around minute 45 and 35 seconds.
Since the play services are updated by the Playstore itself without requiring further interaction or confirmation of the user, I think you can assume that most users are quite up-to-date. So if you set the minimum required version to a version that was released some months ago you should include most of the users.

Related

What is the correct version of Google Play Services needed for Firebase Performance Monitoring?

I'm trying to integrate Firebase Performance Monitoring on an application in which I have already successfully installed Firebase (in fact, I'm already using Crashlytics in this app).
The documentation states that in order to use Firebase Performance Monitoring, the device must have Google Play Services installed.
However, my problem is that I've found what appears to be a bunch of inconsistencies between the documentation and the actual version of Google Play Services available in the Play Store.
The prerequisites section of the documentation states:
Before you begin, you need a few things set up in your environment:
A device running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or newer, and Google Play services 16.1.2 or higher
Also, further in that same page, it says:
Test your app using an Android emulator with a recent image and Google Play services 15.0.0 or later, or using a test device with Google Play services 15.0.0 or later.
On the other hand, the Play Store app on my device (running Android 6.0.1) shows that I have Google Play Services up-to-date, having version 13.2.80, updated on September 6th, 2018:
On top of that, APK Mirror shows that the most recent stable version to the date is 14.3.66, updated on October 3rd, 2018
Nevertheless, the official release notes show that there are no 13.2.80 or 14.3.66 versions and that starting on version 15.0.0, launched on April 12th (almost six months before 13.2.80!), they use SemVer with different versions for their different products.
So my question is: how do I get the correct version of Google Play Services needed for Firebase Performance Monitoring installed on my device?
Any clarifications on why this 13.2.80 version that I have installed or the 14.3.66 version provided in APK Mirror are not mentioned in the official release notes would be appreciated, too.
You have not got an update by Google on your device (6.0.1), latest versions of Android OS are updated to the stable version of Google play services 14.3.66. So you can test your application on emulators or any other devices.

Upgrade your Android Google Mobile Ads SDK to ensure ads keep serving

I received this message today:
Hi AdMob Publisher, In early July, we sent out a notice to AdMob
Publishers who have apps running on SDK version 6.4.1 and lower, to
inform them about deprecating SDK versions and the need to upgrade by
September 15, 2016. We apologize for any inconvenience or unclarity
that the email may have caused to some developers. To ensure that you
have sufficient time to make the changes, we have extended the
deprecation date to October 17, 2016. We also reevaluated the SDK
versions being deprecated, so here is the updated information. What
will happen starting on October 17, 2016: • All support for non-Google
Play Services supported SDKs and Google Mobile Ads SDK version listed
here will be deprecated. • This means that all traffic from these SDKs
will be disabled. What you will need to do: In order to ensure that
your AdMob ads continue to serve after October 17, 2016, please
upgrade your apps to run on the minimum SDK versions listed here. If
you are using a Google Mobile Ads SDK version from Play Services that
is listed on this link, you are not required to take any action. If
you have any questions, please contact us on the developer forum.
Thank you, and stay tuned for more updates and tips. Cheers, The
AdMob Team
I am using Play services Version 4.4.52-000. Is this version ok? Do I need to update?
Click on link provided in email https://firebase.google.com/docs/admob/android-legacy-release-notes
"Prior to becoming part of Google Play services, AdMob had a
standalone SDK with the following versions and release notes listed
below ( Refer to link ).
On October 17th, 2016, AdMob will stop serving ads to the SDK versions
listed below. If your apps are still using any of these SDKs, follow
our Get Started to integrate with AdMob's Google Play services SDK."
The note you have gotten about the SDK needing to be higher than v6.4.1 refers to a legacy, standalone Mobile Ads SDK that was deprecated back in February 2014, and that had its own versioning system.
If your google_play_services_version > 4 , you don't need to make immediate update however it's good practice to upgrade to latest versions of play services library.
EDIT 7-Oct-2016: If you are using a Google Mobile Ads SDK version from Play Services that is listed on this link, you are not required to take any action.
I think majority of confusion occurred due to version numbers between Admob Standalone SDK and version number of Google Play Services.

What Google Play Services version is needed for AppInvites to run?

I am trying to set up App Invites beta library in my application.
The guide suggests to add this dependency:
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:8.4.0’
with 8.4 being the latest version, but actually I want to stick with v. 7.8 (or so) for a while, because in my experience lots of devices are still below, and if they install my app they’ll be asked to update their play services. Nothing wrong, but I just want to stick with that version for a while.
I couldn’t find any info about that on the official docs.
AppInvites was first released in Play Services 8.1. It received a fairly significant update in 8.4, but before that it didn't change much from what I can tell.

Does Google Play Services pre-release versions to developers?

I might be spoiled having worked on iOS for so long, but does Google release Google Play Service beta versions for developers prior to releasing the full versions to the public?
I'm currently working on an SDK project, and would like to test out the latest Google Play Services versions as early as possible, preferably before the full Google Play Services updates are released, to ensure that the SDK maintains functionality with the latest and greatest.
Am I missing something in the documentation? Is there a place where beta / test versions are announced before a full release?
does Google release Google Play Service beta versions for developers prior to releasing the full versions to the public?
No. They do the opposite -- they do not release the updated Play Services SDK until a preponderance of devices have been updated to be able to support it. If your app is using the new SDK, and it winds up on a device with an old Play Services Framework, part of your use of the SDK will involve prompting the user to upgrade their Play Services Framework.
They do an admirable job on backwards compatibility on the whole, so apps written using earlier versions of the Play Services SDK usually continue to work on devices with new versions of the Play Services Framework.
Is there a place where beta / test versions are announced before a full release?
Announcements about general capabilities are sometimes made on the Android Developers Blog, such as this post about the release of Play Services 6.5.

Deprecate API version but allow users to download old APK

background:
My current app is already running on Google play with minSdkVersion=8. As every developer knows Froyo and Gingerbread should have died a couple of years ago, and finally the product team on the company allowed us to drop support for them and go to API 15. Yeah.
Approach:
The idea is to leave this last stable version still available for Gingerbread users to download, so what I'm trying is:
create a build with minSdkVersion=8; maxSdkVersion=14; versionCode=195
create another build with minSdkVersion=15; versionCode=250 (skipping a few version codes in case we NEED some emergency maintenance)
the issue:
it all builds fine, but Google Play does not allow the multi-apk upload with the following error:
This configuration cannot be published for the following reason(s):
It is forbidden that a device upgrading from API levels in range 8-14 to API levels in range 15+ should downgrade from version 195 to version 194
question:
is what I'm trying to do something that Google Play does automatically?
is it possible to do what I'm trying to do?
if possible, how?
The problem is maxSdkVersion=14; versionCode=195. This means that if someone has a device running API level 14, and they upgrade that device to 15, the version of the app they have installed (195) will not run.
Try omitting the maxSdkVersion. I'd hope that people in this scenario would then continue to be able to use the 195 build of the app, and then Google Play should upgrade it to the 250 build next time it performs its check.
Google Play does this automatically - users will receive the latest version that is compatible with their device so there's no need to publish your version 195.
As stated in that error, you should continue to have 15+ versions of the app have a higher version number than <15 builds - this will ensure that users only ever upgrade their app to maintain compatibility.
This error message sounds like Goole Play doesn't "see" your second APK (version 250) for API 15+ and it "believes" users with 15+ will have to downgrade to older version 194 when new version 195 gets installed. I never tried to upload multi-APK projects, but documentation says you need to switch into "advanced mode" (a button in the top-right corner) to upload multi-APK. In this mode "upload new apk" works a bit differently. I assume this might be the issue.

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