In what appears to be another instance of Google decoupling Google+ from other services, Google Play Games, the Mountain View company`s online gaming service and SDK, will let you play your games without signing into Google+.
Players will no longer be asked to sign-in to Google+ every time they play a game that uses Google Play Games API. Also, players don`t have to upgrade to Google+ to use Play Games services like achievements or in-game recording. And if players have signed in once they won`t need to sign into any other games in the future. It will happen automatically across games. Players can turn off auto-sign-in through the Play Games App`s settings.
“We`re taking steps to reduce sign-in friction and unnecessary permission requests for players by moving the Games APIs to a new model,” wrote Wolff Dobson, Developer Advocate on Google`s Android Developers Blog. He goes on to state that protect user privacy, the company will change how player IDs work.
“For existing players: Games will continue to get their Google+ ID (also called “player ID” in previous documentation) when they sign in.For new players: Games will get a new player ID which is not the same as the previous IDs we`ve used.”
It`s a welcome move from Google that recently allowed developers to finally create promo codes and is moving towards allowing users to install apps via Google Search
