Four more APIs get rolled into Play Services for easier access by all developers across devices
Version 4.3 of Google Play Services is now rolling out to devices, bringing with it a new set of APIs, refreshes of other existing APIs and improvements related to the Google Play Games announcement from this morning. Entirely new to Play Services are Google Analytics, Tag Manager, Drive and Address APIs.
Google Analytics and Tag Manager are previously-standing independent APIs that are now being rolled into Play Services — this means developers can interact with these APIs much in the same way as they did, but they can be updated independent of the OS and easier accessed by developers. Both of these APIs let developers have better insight into how their apps are performing (Analytics) and have better control over assets in their apps (Tag Manager) so that changes can be tracked and made on the fly.
The newly-introduced Drive API is also being brought into Play Services, and the latest version includes the ability to pin files, let apps create folders and give apps notifications when files are changed. The Address API is also new, and allows developers to request to view addresses — for example when a user is filling out a delivery or online order form — without having to request the device’s actual location.
As for Google Play Games, this Play Services update brings it up to date with all of the latest features announced earlier today, particularly cross-platform interaction and Game Gifts. Google Play Services updates take some time to roll out, but if you download an app or update an app that needs any of the new APIs, it should force the latest Play Services to download. You can always check in the Play Store for the update manually as well.
Source: Android Developers Blog