Reduce friction with the new Location APIs

Read about it here: https://goo.gl/2U09vM

The 11.0.0 release of the Google Play services SDK includes a new way to access LocationServices. The new APIs do not require your app to manually manage a connection to Google Play services through a GoogleApiClient. This reduces boilerplate and common pitfalls in your app.

Read more in the blog post, or head straight to the updated location samples on GitHub (https://goo.gl/rtdBPQ).

Making the Internet safer and faster: Introducing reCAPTCHA Android API

Read more here: https://goo.gl/xtQ0i6

When we launched reCAPTCHA ten years ago, we had a simple goal: enable users to visit the sites they love without worrying about spam and abuse. Over the years, reCAPTCHA has changed quite a bit. It evolved from the distorted text to street numbers and names, then No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA in 2014 and Invisible reCAPTCHA in March this year.

The journey of reCAPTCHA continues: we'll make the Internet safer and easier to use for everyone (except bots).

Twilio now supports automatic, permission-less phone verification on Android

Read here: https://goo.gl/vTQO52

We’re excited to see the new Twilio Verification SDK for Android. This SDK lets developers get the most from a new Google API that avoids device permissions used for verifying phone numbers. Now, you can build streamlined verification without worrying about manual input of phone numbers or SMS verification codes.

Important reminder: Version 10.2.0 the Google Play services client libraries will start rolling out next Monday, February 13. As we shared two months ago, we’ll increase the minimum supported API level from 9 to 14 with the latest release and discontinue support for Gingerbread and Honeycomb. They were tasty treats, but this change will allow us to provide a more robust collection of tools for Android developers with greater speed.

You can learn more about the change here: https://goo.gl/53epRC

Version 10.0.0 of Google Play services and Firebase client libraries will be the last version to work on Gingerbread. Newer versions will require API level 14 (ICS) or greater.

The Awareness API: Using What Your Phone Knows About You

We take our phones with us everywhere; packed with sensors phones are increasingly aware of their environments. As app developers, this gives us an amazing opportunity to create personalized, contextualized experiences and delight our users.

Learn more about how to create delightful, intelligent, context aware apps with the Android Awareness API: https://goo.gl/Oq0MQ3

The Google Awareness API is available to all developers through Google Play services!

The new Google Awareness APIs enable your apps to intelligently react to user context using 7 different types of context—including location, weather, user activity, and nearby beacons. Using snapshots and fences, your app can better understand your users’ current situations, and use this information to provide optimized and customized experiences with minimal impact on system resources.