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Seems like such a simple question with an obvious answer of "Yes". But I would like to confirm that I'm not misunderstanding something about the Google Play Services.

I have a tracking app that uses the Fused Location services from Google Play. Min API is set to 9.

If I only offer the app through the Play store, I presume all devices that download it will have Play installed - is that a valid assumption? (After years of mobile development, I've learned not to assume anything!)

Or is there a difference between the functionality of accessing the Play store, and using the Play Services Fused Locator?

There seem to be some related posts which make me wonder if my question is as simple as it looks:

Update: I know how to check for existence of the services. This question pertains to the relationship between the Play store and the Play services - does one imply the other from 2.3 Gingerbread onwards?

Comments on Answers:

  • the direct answer to my question is given by TactMayers in a comment below: Google Play Store and Google Play Service are two separate apps.

  • the more subtle issue of versioning is also important, as addressed by Tristan's answer.

So it turns out this was not such an obvious question after all...

Community
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Richard Le Mesurier
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You can not be sure Google Play Services are installed on the devices, you will have to check if the latest Google Play Services are installed.

GooglePlayServicesUtil class has a isGooglePlayServicesAvailable(Context context) function which will allow you to check for it.

Here is a tutorial which checks if google play services are working on an application that is using Google Maps:

Don't forget you should always check if its running the latest version, devices can run an older google play services so you should notify them they have to update it. When running an out of date google play services features like GCM are not going to work.

Tristan
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