Google Play services 7.8 SDK out now, features Nearby Messages and Mobile Vision APIs

Google has just finished rolling out Google Play services version 7.8 to devices, which brings two new APIs that will help developers build better applications. The Nearby Messages API, which works across both Android and iOS, lets mobile devices easily connect with each other based on proximity. There’s also a new Mobile Vision API in this release, which will allow apps to recognize faces and barcodes.

Nearby Messages introduces a cross-platform API that uses a combination of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and an ultrasonic audio modem to help connect devices together. We previously talked about the Nearby API when Google first announced it back in July, so feel free to head to this link to see some examples of what it can do.

In addition to the Nearby Messages API, Google has also included a new Mobile Vision API that includes two components – the Face API and Barcode API. With the Face API, developers can easily find human faces in both images and video. Google says it’s faster, more accurate and provides more information than the Android FaceDetector.Face API. It can find faces in any orientation, and helps devs find landmarks such as eyes, nose and mouth, and can identify faces that are smiling and/or have their eyes open. The Barcode API will allow apps to recognize barcodes in real-time, on any device, in any orientation. It can detect multiple barcodes at once and supports a range of different barcodes. If you’d like more information on the Mobile Vision API, check out the official documentation here.

There are a few more interesting features that come with Google Play services 7.8, so be sure to head to the source link below to read more.