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I am integrating Google Play Games with my Android game. During startup, if a user doesn't have Google Play Games, it shows a dialog with:

This app requires the latest version of Google play games.

Is there a way to make it optional? I would like users to see a dialog where they have the option to install it. But it shouldn't explicitly say required, since it isn't.

Z0q
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  • I suspect that there's no way - google has made significant efforts to lock manufacturers into shipping only devices with their services installed, mainly to ensure everyone has these services and is in their ecosystem, so to speak. The only way around that is probably to make a second build that doesn't use it, and distribute it separately. – childofsoong Feb 04 '16 at 20:04
  • @soong Thank you for your comment. On previous Android versions, I think also on 5.0, it is an optional service. It is not a mandatory package. It might scare away some users who don't have it installed by default. – Z0q Feb 04 '16 at 20:17
  • It's not a part of Android itself, but it comes pre-installed (along with all the other Google services) on virtually every major device manufacturer's devices. See http://bgr.com/2014/05/05/google-search-and-apps-on-android/ for a bit more on that. Basically, you can do android without their stuff, but they make it all or nothing, and what manufacturer wants to make a device without google maps, etc? – childofsoong Feb 04 '16 at 20:28

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I integrated a check to test whether or not Google Play Services is installed and only start the service if it is available for the user (https://stackoverflow.com/a/19955415/5437864).

Users with older versions, like 2.3, without Play Services, can still use the app and will not get notified. Otherwise, they will be notified to install Google Play Games. But if they press cancel, the game still continues without it.

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