Google updates Play services with Mobile Ads SDK, improvements to geofencing, Google+, APIs, but drops Froyo
In addition to the Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 KitKat, Google today also updated Google Play Services to version 4.0. The new release includes the Google Mobile Ads SDK, and also makes improvements to geofencing, Google+, and Google Wallet Instant Buy APIs.
More importantly, Google Play Services 4.0 drops support for Android 2.2 (Froyo). Google notes that over 97 percent of devices that use Google Play are now running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or higher, so killing off Froyo makes sense.
Google says the move allows it to offer Android developers more powerful APIs “in the future.” At the same time, these new APIs will not be available on devices running Android 2.2.
While Google Play services 4.0 is slowly rolling out to Android devices around the world, developers download the latest Google Play services SDK right now. Google is hoping to give them a head start in developing against the new APIs using the new Android 4.4 (KitKat) emulator.
