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How do you update Google Play services?

Google Play Services is one of the most important platforms that an Android Smartphone can have. This platform makes the user experience many times better than if such platform was not installed in the Android system. Why is this so? Well let’s move on to a brief description of what Google Play Services is about before we explain how to update it in different ways.

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                Google Play Services offers different features that can enhance our Android experience. Among the first ones to be mentioned is Google Play Game Services. What the platform does in this case is provide with potential multiplayer features that allow for a more competitive, social aspect in any game to develop. It sometimes allows the users to save sync games on the Google’ cloud infrastructure, which is pretty useful at the time of pausing a multiplayer game.

Another sub-platform provided is Google+, which is a sign-on that can sync many different services account in order not to need to sign on with different user names and passwords but just through the Google+ user name and password. Evidently this can be very practical for the contemporary user, who in general has many accounts here and there on the net.

Google Maps Android API includes Google maps and street view, which gives us access to an extremely useful map as well as a nice view of what the actual streets we are looking for look like in real life.

Google Drive is, without a doubt, one of the best benefits we can get from using Google Play Services. This provides us direct connection to the Google Drive, a Google cloud of 15 Gygabites for free! (and if we want more space we can get it through a monthly subscription). We can directly upload from our phone all kinds of files to the cloud. We can also make back-ups of several applications, such Whatss app, whose messages and files we can back up on Google Drive.

The last sub-platform we will mention is that of Google Wallet, a very good money-transfer system (similar to Paypal) which can we used to borrow from and lend money to people or to purchase products, or pay for services.

Now, the Service usually updates itself if it came as built-in software on your phone. Nevertheless, today  we will tell you how to update it at will, as sometimes updates get delayed, as well as interrupted due to whichever external factor affecting your phone. So, there are two options you can go for.

The first one is simply downloading the Google Play Services APK. I would recommend downloading it from the APK mirror page, which would guarantee do not get any malware into your phone once you install the software. In order to install the software once downloaded, you just need to go to Settings, then Security, tap the box next to Unknown Sources, and do not worry. Nothing bad is going to happen to your phone. By enabling the option, you will allow software that does not come from Google Play Store to be installed  on the phone. When you download the APK Mirror, you might get this message “”this type of file can harm your device”. Just ignore it and continue. Once the app has been downloaded, you are ready to install it. Tap on it and install it. You are good to go.

The second option, perhaps a bit more conventional and perfectly secure is to simply let the Android system update the Google Play Services, and since Google Play Services does not appear as an app on Google Play Store we cannot update the next version form there either. However, how can we do that manually? Well, it is actually much simple that what you would expect. First, you go to Google Play Store and tap on settings (the hamburger symbol on top to your left). Then, scroll down to find “build Version” and then tap on it. If the Play Services is already up-to-date then a pop up would appear that says “Google Play Store is up to date”. Otherwise, the system will get ready to update the current version and will do it as soon as possible. When it gets updated you will notice a chance in the number of the Build Version. After that you are good and ready to go!

The benefits of updating Google Play Services this way is that, first, you do not have to go all the way to downloading software(containing potential malware depending from where it has been downloaded). Besides the APK version will not update itself automatically, which is something important to be on the lookout for.

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