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Get ready for the next generation of gameplay powered by Play Games Services

Posted by Chris Wilk – Group Product Manager, Games on Google Play

To captivate players and grow your game, you need tools that enhance discovery and retention. Play Games Services (PGS) is your key to unlocking a suite of services that connect you with over 2 billion monthly active players. PGS empowers you to drive engagement through features like achievements and increase retention with promotions tailored to each gameplay progress. These tools are designed to help you deliver relevant and compelling content that keeps players coming back.

We are continuously evolving gaming on Play, and this year, we’re introducing more PGS-powered experiences to give you deeper player insights and greater visibility in the Play Store. To access these latest advancements and ensure continued functionality, you must migrate from PGS v1 to PGS v2 by May 2026. Let’s take a closer look at what’s new:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-6b_wWF96U

Drive discovery and engagement by rewarding gameplay progress

We’re fundamentally transforming how achievements work in the Play Store, making them a key driver for a great gaming experience. Now deeply embedded across the store, achievements are easily discoverable via search filters and game detail pages, and further drive engagement when offered with Play Points.

At a minimum, you should have at least 15 achievements spread across the lifetime of the game, in the format of incremental achievements to show progress. Games that enable players to earn at least 5 achievements in the first 2 hours of gameplay are most successful in driving deeper engagement^*.

The most engaging titles offer 40 or more achievements with diverse types of goals including leveling up characters, game progression, hidden surprises, or even failed attempts. To help you get the most out of achievements, we’ve made it easier to create achievements with bulk configuration in Play Console.

For eligible titles^*, Play activates quests to reward players for completing achievements – for example with Play Points. Supercell activated quests for Hay Day, leading to an average 177% uplift in installs^*. You can tailor your quests to achieve specific campaign objectives, whether it’s attracting high-value players or driving spend through repeated engagement, all while making it easy to jump back into your game.

Achievement-based quests allowing users to grow their farm and earn Play Points in the mobile game Hay Day on Google Play

Hay Day boosted new installs with achievement-based quests

Increase retention with tailored promotions

Promotional content is a vital tool for you to highlight new events, major content updates, and exciting offers within your game. It turns Play into a direct marketing channel to re-engage with your players. We’ve enhanced audience targeting capabilities so you can tailor your content to reach and convert the most relevant players.

By integrating PGS, you can use the Play Grouping API to create custom segments based on gameplay context^*. Using this feature, Kabam launched promotional content to custom audiences for Marvel Contest of Champions, resulting in a 4x increase in lapsed user engagement^*.

Marvel Contest of Champions increased retention with targeted promotional content

Start implementing PGS features today

PGS is designed to make the sign-in experience more seamless for players, automatically syncing their progress and identity across Android devices. With a single tap, they can pick up where they left off or start a new game from any screen. Whether you use your own sign-in solution, services from third parties, or a combination of both, we’ve made it easier to integrate Play Games Services with the Recall API.

To ensure a consistent sign-in experience for all players, we’re phasing out PGS v1.

All games currently using PGS v1 must migrate to PGS v2 by May 2026. After this date, you will no longer be able to publish or update games that use the v1 SDK.

Below you’ll find the timeline to plan your migration:

Migration guide

May 2025	As announced at I/O, new apps using PGS v1 can no longer be published. While existing apps can release updates with v1 and the APIs are still functional, you’ll need to migrate by May 2026, and APIs will be fully shut down in 2028.
May 2026	APIs are still functional for users, but are no longer included in the SDK. New app versions compiled with the most recent SDK would fail in the build process if your code still uses the removed APIs. If your app still relies on any of these APIs, you should migrate to PGS v2 as soon as possible.
Q3 2028	APIs are no longer functional and will fail when a request is sent by an app.

Looking ahead, more opportunities powered by PGS

Coming soon, players will be able to generate unique, AI-powered avatars within their profiles – creating fun, diverse representations of their gaming selves. With PGS integration, developers can allow players to carry over their avatar within the game. This enables players to showcase their gaming identity across the entire gameplay experience, creating an even stronger motivation to re-engage with your game.

Gen AI avatar profiles create more player-centric experiences

PGS is the foundational tool for maximizing your business growth on Play, enabling you to tailor your content for each player and access the latest gameplay innovations on the platform. Stay tuned for more PGS features coming this year to provide an even richer player experience.

^* To be eligible, the title must participate in Play Points, integrate Play Games Services v2, and have achievements configured in Play Console.

^* Data source from partner. Average incremental installs over a 14-day period.

^* Data source from partner.

^* The Play Grouping API provides strong measures to protect privacy for end users, including user-visible notification when the API is first used, and opt-out options through My Activity.

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01/07/2025

Agentic AI takes Gemini in Android Studio to the next level
Posted by Sandhya Mohan – Product Manager, and Jose Alcérreca – Developer Relations Engineer

Software development is undergoing a significant evolution, moving beyond reactive assistants to intelligent agents. These agents don’t just offer suggestions; they can create execution plans, utilize external tools, and make complex, multi-file changes. This results in a more capable AI that can iteratively solve challenging problems, fundamentally changing how developers work.

At Google I/O 2025, we offered a glimpse into our work on agentic AI in Android Studio, the integrated development environment (IDE) focused on Android development. We showcased that by combining agentic AI with the built-in portfolio of tools inside of Android Studio, the IDE is able to assist you in developing Android apps in ways that were never possible before. We are now incredibly excited to announce the next frontier in Android development with the availability of ‘Agent Mode’ for Gemini in Android Studio.

These features are available in the latest Android Studio Narwhal Feature Drop Canary release, and will be rolled out to business tier subscribers in the coming days. As with all new Android Studio features, we invite developers to provide feedback to direct our development efforts and ensure we are creating the tools you need to build better apps, faster.

Agent Mode

Gemini in Android Studio’s Agent Mode is a new experimental capability designed to handle complex development tasks that go beyond what you can experience by just chatting with Gemini.

With Agent Mode, you can describe a complex goal in natural language — from generating unit tests to complex refactors — and the agent formulates an execution plan that can span multiple files in your project and executes under your direction. Agent Mode uses a range of IDE tools for reading and modifying code, building the project, searching the codebase and more to help Gemini complete complex tasks from start to finish with minimal oversight from you.

To use Agent Mode, click Gemini in the sidebar, then select the Agent tab, and describe a task you’d like the agent to perform. Some examples of tasks you can try in Agent Mode include:
The agent then suggests edits and iteratively fixes bugs to complete tasks. You can review, accept, or reject the proposed changes along the way, and ask the agent to iterate on your feedback.

Gemini breaks tasks down into a plan with simple steps. It also shows the list of IDE tools it needs to complete each step.

While powerful, you are firmly in control, with the ability to review, refine and guide the agent’s output at every step. When the agent proposes code changes, you can choose to accept or reject them.

The Agent waits for the developer to approve or reject a change.

Additionally, you can enable “Auto-approve” if you are feeling lucky 😎 — especially useful when you want to iterate on ideas as rapidly as possible.

You can delegate routine, time-consuming work to the agent, freeing up your time for more creative, high-value work. Try out Agent Mode in the latest preview version of Android Studio – we look forward to seeing what you build! We are investing in building more agentic experiences for Gemini in Android Studio to make your development even more intuitive, so you can expect to see more agentic functionality over the next several releases.

Gemini is capable of understanding the context of your app

Supercharge Agent Mode with your Gemini API key

The default Gemini model has a generous no-cost daily quota with a limited context window. However, you can now add your own Gemini API key to expand Agent Mode’s context window to a massive 1 million tokens with Gemini 2.5 Pro.

A larger context window lets you send more instructions, code and attachments to Gemini, leading to even higher quality responses. This is especially useful when working with agents, as the larger context provides Gemini 2.5 Pro with the ability to reason about complex or long-running tasks.

Add your API key in the Gemini settings

To enable this feature, get a Gemini API key by navigating to Google AI Studio. Sign in and get a key by clicking on the “Get API key” button. Then, back in Android Studio, navigate to the settings by going to File (Android Studio on macOS) > Settings > Tools > Gemini to enter your Gemini API key. Relaunch Gemini in Android Studio and get even better responses from Agent Mode.

Be sure to safeguard your Gemini API key, as additional charges apply for Gemini API usage associated with a personal API key. You can monitor your Gemini API key usage by navigating to AI Studio and selecting Get API key > Usage & Billing.

Note that business tier subscribers already get access to Gemini 2.5 Pro and the expanded context window automatically with their Gemini Code Assist license, so these developers will not see an API key option.

Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Gemini in Android Studio’s Agent Mode can now interact with external tools via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This feature provides a standardized way for Agent Mode to use tools and extend knowledge and capabilities with the external environment.

There are many tools you can connect to the MCP Host in Android Studio. For example you could integrate with the Github MCP Server to create pull requests directly from Android Studio. Here are some additional use cases to consider.

In this initial release of MCP support in the IDE you will configure your MCP servers through a mcp.json file placed in the configuration directory of Studio, using the following format:
{ "mcpServers": { "memory": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-memory" ] }, "sequential-thinking": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking" ] }, "github": { "command": "docker", "args": [ "run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN", "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server" ], "env": { "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "<YOUR_TOKEN>" } } } }
Example configuration with two MCP servers

For this initial release, we support interacting with external tools via the stdio transport as defined in the MCP specification. We plan to support the full suite of MCP features in upcoming Android Studio releases, including the Streamable HTTP transport, external context resources, and prompt templates.

For more information on how to use MCP in Studio, including the mcp.json configuration file format, please refer to the Android Studio MCP Host documentation.

By delegating routine tasks to Gemini through Agent Mode, you’ll be able to focus on more innovative and enjoyable aspects of app development. Download the latest preview version of Android Studio on the canary release channel today to try it out, and let us know how much faster app development is for you!

As always, your feedback is important to us – check known issues, report bugs, suggest improvements, and be part of our vibrant community on LinkedIn, Medium, YouTube, or X. Let’s build the future of Android apps together!
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26/06/2025
His Bakery's Window Got Smashed — But What He Did Next Actually Helped His Business

Chef Nick Rodriguez talks about building a successful cupcake brand, staying calm under pressure and turning viral chaos into community support.

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17/06/2025
The Next Chapter for Streetball? How Creators Are Taking Over Basketball

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Every basketball player dreams of making it to the NBA — but for most, that dream goes unrealized.

“When you stop playing, a part of your identity as a basketball player fades,” says Scotty Weaver, a former college hooper turned basketball content creator. “It’s always that feeling of never making it.”

While playing overseas or in semi-pro leagues is still an option, it rarely comes with the recognition that the NBA offers. With The Next Chapter, Weaver is aiming to change that.

Co-founded with fellow basketball creator D’Vonte Friga, The Next Chapter (TNC) is a premier 1v1 basketball league spotlighting some of the most dynamic streetballers in the game. Players go head-to-head for cash prizes in a format reminiscent of cage fighting.

Related: 7 Lessons from Basketball to Help You Succeed in Business

The prologue

Weaver was in the streetball content world long before TNC, starting out working with BallisLife doing content with their East Coast squad, where he met standout player Isaiah Hodge, aka Slim Reaper. They left Ballislife and started making their own street ball content with a group called The Wild Hunt. Weaver would bring his Wild Hunt team to local parks and film five-on-five basketball videos.

“We had a bunch of guys who were characters,” Weaver says. “Slam dunkers, guys doing creative dribbling, big talkers. Everyone brought their own personality and energy.”

The five-on-five format helped draw big crowds, but it made it tough for Weaver to pay the players involved consistently.

“To help pay the team, we asked after the event if they wanted to run some one-on-ones with people at the park,” he explains. “When that video comes out, we’ll post it as the next chapter — and whatever it generates will be how we pay you. So your ability to earn is directly tied to your performance in the video.”

That model incentivized players to talk trash, play flashy and stand out, turning the games into even better content.

They started featuring one of their players, Lah Moon, in a one-on-one after every park run, challenging the best and bravest from the crowd. After a string of undefeated performances, Moon finally met his match in former college hooper Nasir Core, whose dominant showing made him a standout in the community.

Sensing they were onto something, Weaver brought Core in as another featured one-on-one player, laying the groundwork for what would eventually become The Next Chapter. Season One featured seven players, each compensated based on how well their videos performed. They shot all seven episodes in a single day and posted them over several months.

“Season one did great,” Weaver says. “Players started to see how much money they could make on this.”

What began as a way for players to make some extra money has unexpectedly evolved into a potential career path for streetball creators.

“We just paid attention to what people wanted to watch,” Weaver says. “What we’re building is a basketball league — whether it’s one-on-ones, two-on-twos, three-on-threes, or five-on-fives. Right now, we’re focused on ones because they’re far more marketable. But we never want to close ourselves off to the idea of doing it all.”

Related: ‘This is the Future’: WNBA Legend Lisa Leslie Reflects on the WNBA’s Growth and Championing Small Business

The ‘UFC’ of hoops

TNC’s marketing strategy channels the spirit of Vince McMahon and Dana White, building stars by spotlighting unique personalities and skill sets. YouTube phenom Devonte Friga knows this process well, having grown his personal channel to over a million followers.

“We’re trying to build the UFC of one-on-one basketball,” Friga says.

He points to one of TNC’s standout players, J Lew, whom the marketing team cleverly labeled “the internet’s shiftiest hooper.”

“There are so many players like that — each with small, unique parts of their game that define who they are. Take NAS, for example. Online, he’s dominant. He doesn’t just win — he wins big — and makes sure everyone knows it. Then there’s Moon, whose unorthodox one-on-one style is so distinctive that NBA 2K flew him out to capture his crossover move, even though he’s not an NBA player. It’s those little things — the way a player stands out — that turn them into a star.”

The next chapter for The Next Chapter

Although most TNC players are streetballers, the league is experimenting with a new format on June 6: a one-on-one showdown between former NBA players Lance Stephenson and Michael Beasley, with $100,000 at stake.

The matchup will serve as the finale of Season 2, which featured 20 episodes of the two pros coaching opposing squads, building anticipation for their long-awaited faceoff. The event will be available via pay-per-view, a bold move for a league whose audience is accustomed to free content.

Still, Weaver is confident fans will see the value.

“I think it’s about proving to your audience that when you ask them to spend their money, there has to be a clear sense of value — like, wow, I actually got something great in return — rather than, this just feels like the same thing I was getting for free, but now I have to pay for it.”

While some details are still being finalized, Weaver estimates that moving forward, about 95% of TNC content will remain free, with roughly 5% behind a paywall.

While others — like former NBA star Tracy McGrady with his OBL league — have explored the 1v1 basketball space, The Next Chapter is carving its path from the ground up.

“Unlike Tracy’s league, we don’t need to be something big right away,” says Friga. “What we’re building is completely different, and I believe it has the potential to become a billion-dollar industry.”

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12/06/2025
Apple Unveils Its Next Generation of Software

The first big change is with all of the software naming. Instead of iOS 19, Apple has moved to a year naming system. So it’s iOS 26. That applies to all of the other software versions.

Along with a new name is a significant updated design. Apple is calling it Liquid Glass. The translucent material reflects and refracts surroundings to bring content into better focus. It’s a significant change, but something that Apple seems to have well thought out as it extends to all of the new software.

As you probably expected, Apple has made some big upgrades to Apple Intelligence. Live Translation is built into FaceTime and Messages to help communicate across languages. Visual Intelligence has now been extended to the entire iPhone screen.

Shortcuts have also been powered up with Apple Intelligence. It will also ID and summarize order tracking details sent from merchants. Developers can use a new Foundation Models framework to use Apple Intelligence privately and offline.

The phone part of the iPhone know shows a unified layout with Favorites, Recent, and Voice Mail. Call Screening will ask users questions to see if they want to pick up or ignore the call.

Another popular part of the iPhone, Messages, is also sporting new features. You can screen messages from unknown senders. They will appear in a dedicated folder and remained silenced until accepted.

On the iPad, expect much more of a Mac-like interface. A new window system allows you to resize apps and place them exactly where you want. A menu bar allows you to find a specific feature or tip along with accessing commands.

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10/06/2025
You’re collecting feedback, but what happens next?
You’re gathering valuable, high-quality feedback through surveys, in-app interactions, or other channels. But once that data is collected, what happens next? Is it all stored in one centralized location, or does it end up siloed across different teams or systems? If this sounds familiar, how can you expect your teams to act on feedback in a unified way?

This is where feedback integrations and automation come into play. With the right tools and strategies, you can break down data silos and connect feedback to key systems across your organization. This enables faster, more personalized, and more impactful action.

This post references our latest e-guide, “Transforming Insights into Action: How Feedback Integrations and Automation Revolutionize CX Programs”. You can read the full (and free) e-guide, here!

So, what exactly do we mean by integrations?

At their core, integrations are the connections between different systems and platforms that allow data to flow seamlessly updating systems, triggering actions, and giving your teams access to real-time feedback. When it comes to customer feedback, integrations amplify its value by sharing it with other tools, making it accessible to various teams. A common example is connecting feedback to your CRM, like Salesforce, but this could also include other CRMs, business intelligence tools, or customer service platforms.

Integrations ensure a smooth flow of information, turning feedback into something contextual and actionable.

Now, let’s explore why integrations are so essential:

1. Break down feedback silos across channels and systems

Feedback often ends up scattered across various systems like CRMs, support tools, survey platforms, and more. When these systems don’t communicate, silos form, preventing teams from gaining a complete, unified view of the customer experience. This lack of visibility results in fragmented insights and delays in taking action, as valuable feedback stays isolated in separate platforms. By integrating feedback with your key business systems, you unlock crucial data and ensure it reaches the right people instantly.

2. Eliminate manual feedback processes

Many organizations still rely on outdated, manual processes for collecting, analyzing, and acting on feedback—like manually entering data, generating reports, updating internal teams, and following up with customers. These tasks are not only time-consuming but also prone to human error and inconsistencies. Automation simplifies these processes, cutting down on manual work and speeding up response times.

3. Act quickly on feedback

The longer it takes to analyze and respond to feedback, the less relevant it becomes. Often, feedback is collected but not acted upon quickly enough, causing missed opportunities to resolve customer issues or capitalize on positive experiences. 90% of customers expect an “immediate” response to their feedback, and for many, “immediate” means within 10 minutes or less. Failing to act fast enough risks losing that customer—and their future business. By integrating feedback with your core systems, you enable real-time action, ensuring the right teams are notified immediately to resolve issues or enhance the experience.

4. Take personalization to the next level

Generic feedback surveys often fail to capture the unique needs and preferences of individual customers. Without integration with customer data platforms—such as behavioral data or purchase history—personalizing feedback requests becomes a complex and manual task.

Show your customers you care! Data integrations allow businesses to personalize surveys based on customer data, ensuring that feedback requests are relevant and engaging. This leads to higher response rates and more meaningful insights.

Continue reading

Don’t let valuable feedback go to waste—learn how to make it work for you! Download our new e-guide, “Transforming Insights into Action: How Feedback Integrations and Automation Revolutionize CX Programs”.

In this guide we:
- Explore common challenges organizations face with siloed feedback and manual processes—and how integrations solve these issues.
- Highlight real-world examples of automation in action, from event-based automation to personalizing surveys and enriching customer profiles.
- Identify key integrations that enhance feedback programs, including CRMs, analytics tools, and customer service platforms.
- Provide a checklist for evaluating feedback integration capabilities.
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19/04/2025
Expand Your Vocabulary With the Word Building Game Next Letter

Getting started is easy. Each games starts with a randomly chosen letter from A to Z and give possible next letters. Some of those are valid to create words while others are not. When you select a valid letter, it adds to the words and earns points. An invalid word deducts points.

That process continues until a complete word is formed. You can submit the word to head to the next round or try to extend it. The round continues until no further extensions are possible, leading to a new random letter.

As a nice touch, the game is playable without an Internet connection, making it perfect for a long flight or a car ride without Wi-Fi.

Next Letter is a free download now on the App Store. It’s for the iPhone and all iPad models.

There is an optional in-app purchase of $9.99. That will unlock additional themes, detailed statistics, and more than 190,000 words with definitions.

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18/04/2025
Power the next wave of games growth with ads innovation

Deliver tailored, immersive ad experiences

We’re also introducing a series of enhancements to the AdMob mediation platform to amplify revenue impact for app publishers. First, we’re making new real-time bidding buyers available in AdMob. Unity Ads Network and ironSource Ads will soon be able to bid on publisher inventory available with AdMob.

We’ll also be releasing an upgraded mediation toolkit to help improve your ad operations. For publishers implementing a hybrid monetization strategy, AdMob’s mediation segmentation feature can tailor ad experiences based on different user behaviors. For example, you will be able to customize mediation settings like price floors, to ensure you’re optimizing for ads interactions for those less likely to purchase in-app content. And, for publishers who experiment with multiple mediation setups, AdMob’s improved A/B testing tool will deliver results in days, alongside reporting visuals and metrics. AdMob mediation segmentation and improved A/B testing are coming to beta soon.

In addition to an optimal mediation strategy, an elevated ad experience can bring even more player engagement and lifetime value. Now with immersive in-game ads, publishers will be able to reimagine the in-game ad experience and display an ad that blends naturally into game environments. It works across a spectrum of game genres, with ample placement opportunities such as intermission breaks, level progressions and more.

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13/04/2025