At Google I/O last week, Google introduced a broad array of different products, services and features which will roll out to Android. From Android Wear, to Google Play Games enhancements and more. Today, the Google Developers blog has advised that Google Play Services 5.0 – the update which brings these goodies – has completed its worldwide rollout.
To start with, with Android Wear devices due to begin shipping out tomorrow, Android Wear APIs have been seeded in the new Google Play Services. This includes a low-latency messaging interface, and an automatically synchronized, persistent data store. All of which means your Phone and new Android Wear watch can sync messages, notifications and commands.
The Google Play Games updates announced at Google I/O, including Quests and Saved Games are now live. Quests allow developers to add new challenges to games without the need to update their game, and Saved Games are now available to sync your saves across different devices using the Google Cloud.
Chromecast gets some love in the new Google Play Services, with the Google Cast protocol now supporting closed captioning.
There’s other features for Google Drive, adding the ability to ‘sort query results, create folders offline, and select any mime type in the file picker by default’.
For US residents, some new Google Wallet features have been introduced. Analytics gets a bump and there’s new Mobile Ad features. It’s a fairly big update, which Google Australia’s Ankur Kotwal describes as one of the biggest Play Services updates ever. Check it out:
