Latest Google Play Services further simplifies the sign-in experience

The latest version of Google Play Services debuted yesterday and while most of the changes really don’t directly affect consumers and matter mostly to developers, there are a few changes that are worthy of your notice.

The most significant change is the introduction of an improved Google Sign-In API. The newly improved sign-in method no longer requires device accounts permissions, has the new Google branding and logo, and basically makes an already smooth process even better. While there’s some more technical changes behind the scenes, bottom-line is that Google is cutting down the number of steps required by users to sign in to apps that utilize this API.

The other noteworthy changes are that the Smart Lock API now lets users pick previously used email addresses to fill in forms more easily, and the data API now gives developers more control over how data is synced to wearables.

There’s a few other changes beyond this, and for those interested, you can learn more at the Android developer’s blog (and/or check out the video at the top of this post). As is typical, it could take a little while for this update to reach all devices, though you really won’t notice any difference until developers start taking advantage of this under-the-hood API changes.