Google Play Services Receives Yet Another Update

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Google Play Services Receives Yet Another Update

Well, here we are again folks, reporting on yet another update to Google Play Services which was just updated about a week ago. This time the update to Google Play Services brings it up to version 6.1.71 and things are a little different in this update. You will see what we mean as soon as you update the app, UI tweaks! When we say UI tweaks, we don’t mean any old UI tweaks, we are talking Android L UI here folks! That’s right, updating Google Play Services will bring with it an Android L-style icon for the Google Settings app as well as some Android L UI in the app itself. Lets go ahead and talk a little about what exactly was changed in the UI. First off, like we said, the Google Settings app icon itself is now an Android L-styled icon with that more pronounced drop shadow look, but lets talk about whats inside the app.

Open the updated Google Settings app and you will be greeted with an Android L-style header that appears to hover slightly above the rest of the app, and on that header you will see the also updated overflow menu. Dive a little deeper into the app and you will see that this is the first app to receive Android L-style checkboxes, although they don’t have the slick animation when you check and un-check them. The Google Settings app just looks better all around.

The Android L update to the Google Settings app is just the latest in what appears to be an update spree that Google is on with it’s apps. Google is doing this in preparation for the impending Android L release which will be much sooner than later. It is very likely that every Google app will be touched by Android L sometime soon, before the public release of Android L itself. Something that we thought was worth mentioning before we end this article is that like some of the recent updates to Google apps, this app does not play well with the developer preview of Android L. For instance, attempting to open the overflow menu will cause the app to force close. Just be careful messing around with these apps on the Android L preview as things there are already fragile.