Develop Reference

Does "play-services:9.8.0" include "play-services-location:9.8.0"?

I am upgrading an App, and in my build.gradle file, I have this:
dependencies {
..........
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:9.8.0'
..........
}
In the Android SDK Setup Quickstart Guide Urban Airship provides, they offer this as a sample code:
dependencies {
..........
// Recommended for location services
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:9.8.0'
..........
}
If I use "play-services:9.8.0" I would assume it would also include "play-services-location:9.8.0" because "play-services-location:9.8.0" should be a subset of "play-services:9.8.0", but I wanted to confirm. Do you know if this is a correct assumption? Thank you.

From Google Api Documentation
you can use the latest Google play service api:
dependencies {
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:10.2.1'
}
If the number of method references in your app exceeds the 65K limit, your app may fail to compile. You may be able to mitigate this problem when compiling your app by specifying only the specific Google Play services APIs your app uses, instead of all of them.
To Selectively compiling APIs into your executable:
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:10.2.1'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-plus:10.2.1'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:10.2.1'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-games:10.2.1'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-gcm:10.2.1'
the detail lists are provided in the documentation.

Yes, play-services is the full bundle. They were broken apart to reduce the method count of your app so you don't hit the dex limit. More information can be found here.

Google Play Services 9.2.0 Selective Compile Awareness API

I'm trying to use the new Awareness API in an app but the only way that I can include it in my code is by using
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:9.2.0'
in my gradle file.
I tried using
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-awareness:9.2.0'
but it doesn't seem to exist.
Does anyone know what the correct compile path for selective compile of the awareness API is?
Thanks in advance.

It actually does exist.
//Awareness API
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-contextmanager:9.2.0'

Today you have to include:
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-awareness:10.2.4'
If you want to know the latest Dependency you can use my web tool called DependencyLookup.

How do I identify and import only specific libraries from Google Play Services?

I currently have the following line in my dependency:
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:4.2.42'
I put this in longn back when I was just starting out to code my app and now I realize that this is what is probably causing my app to bloat at about 20 MB
Is there a way to identify and specifically import only necessary services to reduce my app size? I am pretty sure there are ways to import only specific modules, but also pointers on how I can identify which modules I need will be appreciated

From version 6.5, you can instead selectively compile Google Play service APIs into your app,
For example, to include only the Google Fit and Android Wear APIs, replace the following line in your build.gradle file:
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:8.4.0'
with these lines:
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-fitness:8.4.0'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-wearable:8.4.0'
please check this link

First, you need to check your project & identify which Play Services Modules are used. Then, You can selectively add the play services APIs which are necessary to your project.
For Ex : The below will be add Google Analytics and Maps modules to your app.
dependencies {
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-base:8.4.0'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-analytics:8.4.0'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:8.4.0'
}

You can use something like this
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:8.4.0'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:8.4.0'

PlaceAutocompleteFragment can't resolved

In my app I have added Google Maps and they work fine. I want to add a PlaceAutocompleteFragment. I am using the key which I had already generate for maps and I have enable the option Places Api from google.console. I have added these to my build.gradle:
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:8.3.0'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:8.3.0'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:8.3.0'
but when I try to use PlacesAutoCompleteFragment then Android Studio can't resolve this.

The problem here is that PlaceAutocompleteFragment didn't exist in version 8.3 of Google Play Services.
This isn't documented very well, but you can see on this blog that PlaceAutocompleteFragment was "announced" in December 2015.
You can also see in the PlaceCompleteFragment Google code samples on GitHub that they are using version 8.4 of GooglePlayServices.
I also had this problem, and updating Google Play Services is what made it work.
So, update Google Play Services in the SDK Manager, and then modify the build.gradle like so, and it should work:
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:8.4.0'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:8.4.0'
Update
In newer versions of Google Play Services, they have broken out the Google Places API, so you need to include it in addition to Maps and Location:
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:11.0.2'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:11.0.2'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-places:11.0.2'

Android studio build gradle sync failed

I am trying to add google play service to my project but it gives me error when I try to edit build (Gradle).
How can I fix it?

In your configuration there some issues.
You are using the wrong build.gradle file.
It is your top-level file.
You should add this line in your app/build.gradle
There is a typo. You are missing the ' at the end of the line compile.
Use an updated version.
For example use:
apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
...
dependencies {
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:8.1.0'
}
Finally refer this official doc for more info.
In versions of Google Play services prior to 6.5, you had to compile the entire package of APIs into your app. In some cases, doing so made it more difficult to keep the number of methods in your app (including framework APIs, library methods, and your own code) under the 65,536 limit.
For example if you need to make only your app aware of location updates add
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:8.1.0' only in gradle or if you need only map choose compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:8.1.0'.

Please replace
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:3.1.36
with
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:3.1.36'

One thing you can try is Right Click on app open module settings on Dependencies Tab click '+' icon and add there 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:8.1.0' and click search icon and add that dependency,

So i don't want to elaborate what you had done wrong as my colleagues figured it out.I like to say, while playing with Google Play Service
Selectively compile APIs into your executable
In versions of Google Play services prior to 6.5, you had to compile the entire package of APIs into your app. In some cases, doing so made it more difficult to keep the number of methods in your app (including framework APIs, library methods, and your own code) under the 65,536 limit.
For example if you need to make only your app aware of location
updates add compile
'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:8.1.0' only in gradle
or if you need only map choose compile
'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:8.1.0'.
Thank you.
Visit for more.