Google Play Games Leaks, Will Debut at Google I/O

Google is preparing a gaming service called Google Play Games and a leak reveals that this may make multiplayer gaming on Android a much better experience.

The leak comes via Android Police, which tore through the latest version of the Google Play Services app to find the Google Play Games. The teardown of the APK reveals a lot about Google's upcoming gaming service.

Android Police has a very technical breakdown and it shows some interesting screen shots as well but the gist is that Google Play Games will offer matchmaking, in-game chatting, lobbies, the ability to save games to the cloud, leaderboards and invitations. If you've ever played any type of online game on a computer or a console, these should all be very familiar to you.

We're expecting Google Play Games to be officially announced at next week's Google I/O conference, as it would be nice to get eager developers to utilize this type of service. Google will be doing the heavy lifting on the game service side and that should be a boon for smaller developers who may not have the resources or expertise to create their own sort of system. We've been hearing about this rumor for a while and it looks like it is finally coming to fruition.

Google Play Games will also bring Android up to speed with its competitors. Apple has its own Game Center service for gaming which does a lot of the same things that the rumored Google Play Games will do. Microsoft has also built in its Xbox services into Windows Phone 8.

This is just one of many new services and products that we're expecting Google to announce during its I/O conference. We're looking forward to some new Android-powered hardware, a new version of the software and a handful of surprises.

Thanks to AndroidPolice. :*

Facebook Announces ‘Facebook Home’ Replacement Launcher for Android Phones

As expected, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the HTC First Facebook phone today, but he also introduced a complete home replacement for many popular Android phones (and eventually tablets). It’s called Facebook Home, and according to Zuckerberg, “It sets the tone for your whole experience.”


Although the new launcher will work with all the apps that are installed on your phone, it changes the focal point to people as opposed to apps. The Coverfeed allows you to scroll through updates with large photos. You will be able to quickly see all the comments and respond inline. You will also find a notification pane that includes SMS messages and other important posts.

Chat Heads allows you to utilize Facebook Messenger or SMS while using any other app. You can simply carry on a conversation without closing the app. Floating pictures of your friends appears on the screen, and you can move them wherever you want. If you want to converse with any of your friends, just tap their picture to start chatting via SMS or Facebook Messenger.

You will also find a major change when it comes to notifications. They are now sorted by friend instead of apps. It’s all about telling you what your friend is doing rather than if an app has something to tell you. In a sense, your phone becomes one huge newsfeed.


The rumors leading up to today were that Facebook would fork Android, but Zuckerberg praised the openness of Android and said, “You don’t need to fork Android or modify the OS to do this.”

Facebook is offering Facebook Home to all manufacturers as far as making their phones compatible to it or by releasing phones that have it pre-installed. Some partners already signed up include HTC, Samsung, Sony, Huawei, and chipmaker Qualcomm.

Since it was announced that some phones already on the market would be compatible, it’s unclear whether an over-the-air update is necessary to enable this compatibility. These phones include the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note II, the upcoming Galaxy S 4, the HTC One, and the One X+. If you have one of these phones, you can simply download the app from the Play Store when it becomes available on April 12, which is the same day the HTC First will become available. Tablet support is on the way, but no timeframe was given.

Thanks to Robert Nazarian and Talkandroid. :*