Developers get ready for the latest in Google Play Gaming features

Google has just rolled out a huge number of features related to gaming at Google I/O 2013, and even on day 1 over a dozen developers are partnering to have the new services ready at launch. Popular names like Miniclip, Glu, Spryfox, Ironhide Game Studio, HandyGames, Hemisphere and several more are all on board to provide multiplayer game services, the new game data syncing feature, and more. These are the developers that make many of the top games we know and love, which will be great to get multiplayer gaming the exposure it needs right from the start.

We'll continue to bring you more from the Google I/O 2013 keynote as it becomes available.

The worst kept secret from Google just became officially official. Google Play Game Services has just been formally announced by Hugo Barra in San Francisco. We'll be taking a more detailed look at this later on, but the service centers around a few key elements:

• Cloud Save - progression and game states saved to the cloud and synchronized across devices. 
• Achievements
• Leaderboards
• Google+ Circles to make connections

Perhaps more impressive still, though, is that Google is making the Google Play Game Services cross-platform. There is an API for the web and for iOS. So, Google will be taking on Game Center on Apple's own turf. Interesting stuff! 

Follow our live coverage of the Google I/O keynote for the rest of the day's news!

We're at Google I/O, where they just announced improvements to their Google+ Sign-In API, which is cross platform sign-in. What does that mean? If you find a cool website that you like (they demoed it with Fancy), you can sign in with Google+. If you do, you will automatically be asked if you would like to install the app on your Android device. If you say yes, the app will download and log you in automatically on your current device and other Android devices on your account. Very cool improvement to a good API. 

Follow our live coverage of the Google I/O keynote for the rest of the day's news!

Upstream messaging, sycnhronized notifications and persistent connections

Google's Hugo Barra has just taken the wraps off new features for Google Cloud Messaging, at the Google I/O keynote in San Francisco. In addition to rolling GCM into Google Play services, Barra unveiled three major new features for the push messaging service.

• Persistent connections between developers' own servers and Google's, allowing a large number of messages to be sent out at once.
• Upstream messaging, so devices can push messages back to GCM.
• Synchronized notifications, so users can dismiss notifications on one device, and have them dismiss on all other devices.

The last two in particular were met with much applause from the assembled developers and press.

The new GCM features will be "rolling out progressively," Barra said. Keep watching our Google I/O liveblog for live coverage of the day's events.

Save battery life and improve location data for every app

We're live here at the Google I/O 2013 keynote, where Google has started off with talking about APIs for Android. As one of its first announcements, Google is rolling out three new APIs  for developers to access the location of a device. First up is "Geofencing", which lets apps define virtual fences around areas to then do actions when the user enters or leaves the area. Every app will be able to set up to 100 different geofences.

Next, we now have "Activity Recognition", which tracks movement without the use of GPS. Using different sensors like the accelerometer, apps can track the location and movement of a device. Finally, we have a new service called "Fused Location Provider", which sounds fancy but the end result is that it improves GPS efficiency for apps. GPS will drain no more than 1-percent per hour when locking to a user's location.

We'll keep on bringing you more from Google I/O 2013 as we see it!

Hugo Barra just took to the stage in San Francisco at Google I/O 2013, and the first thing he talked about was some extremely impressive statistics for Google Play. 

Google Play has now seen an astonishing total of 48 billion app installs, with 2.5 billion installs in just the last month alone.  Better yet for developers, revenue per user is up 2.5 percent in the last year, so things are looking good for developers distributing their apps through Google Play. 

Follow our live coverage of the Google I/O Keynote for the rest of the days news, as it happens!

At the Google I/O keynote in San Francisco, Android and Chrome head Sundar Pichai has just revealed that Android has passed the milestone of 900 million activations, up from 400 million in 2012 and 100 million in 2011.

Pichai called the milestone "an extraordinary ecosystem achievement," but joked "there are 7 billion people in the world, so we have a long way to go, and we think we're just getting started." 

Follow our live coverage of the Google I/O keynote for the rest of the day's news!

Full coverage of all Google's announcements, live from San Francisco!

OK, boys and girls. This is it. We're live from the Google I/O developer conference this week in San Francisco, for all the developer/services/apps/hardware/whatever Google can throw at us.

Kicking things off today is the week's only keynote, and it's a 3-hour whopper. We're all charged up and ready to go. The keynote starts at 9 a.m. PDT -- that's noon on the east coast and 5 p.m. in the UK.

So join us for the livestream, our photos and commentary, and basically the best Android coverage on the planet.

Hit the break for the whole kit and kaboodle.

It's turning out to be the worst-kept secret of this year's Google I/O -- 'Google Play Games' has cropped up once again in game changelogs ahead of its presumed launch during today's keynote. Eufloria HD has been updated with support for "Google Play Games achievements," and a note adding "We hope you enjoy using Google Play Games to save and share achievements!" A number of Gameloft titles have been updated too, with more subtle references "game services" support being included.

We're sure it'll all be official in just a couple of hours or so. Stay tuned to our Google I/O keynote liveblog for all the latest.

Source: Google Play

Updates are always good, and this one is filled with some of the things you've been asking for

Our awesome Android Central app just got .1 more awesomer, as we've pushed out an update that addresses some of the things you've been asking for. With version 1.1, you've got a sexy new scrollable widget (which is also resizable and will work with your lock screen if you're running Android 4.2.2) that puts the latest Android news right on your home screen, keeping you up to date. (It currently refreshes every half-hour -- we're looking at making that more frequent in a future update.)

Normally, that in and of itself would be enough to make a new release, but that's not how we roll here. In addition, you've got landscape support throughout the entire app, including the settings panel tucked on the left side. That same side menu now works on all screens, too. 

One last thing -- when we write a story that includes a link to Google Play, you'll now have a shiny Google Play Store icon in the Action Bar across the top of the app. Tap it, and you can open the link to the app directly in Google Play using Android's powerful intents system. 

We think you'll enjoy this latest version, and we're already hard at work on the next -- using your feedback as a guideline. Update your copy of the Android Central app through Google Play, or you can just tap the link above to check it out. You'll also find a handful of screenshots after the break.