Sidekick SDK

The Sidekick SDK is available to developers who:

  • Publish releases as an APK, rather than an Android App Bundle (AAB).
  • Need access to Sidekick, but use an incompatible anti-tampering solution. If you have other questions, request support.

To add Sidekick SDK, add the com.google.android.play:sidekick to your dependencies. Make sure that you include Google's Maven repository (maven.google.com) as one of your listed repositories.

For example, in your module's build.gradle.kts file, add the following: 

dependencyResolutionManagement {
  repositories {
    google()
    // Other repositories
  }
}

dependencies {
  // Other dependencies
  implementation("com.google.android.play:sidekick:+")
}

Implementation requirements

  • Minimum SDK level: Sidekick latest version requires a minSdkVersion of 23.
  • Testing workflow: Tests can be conducted only through internal or closed testing tracks using the Google Play Console.
  • Feature disabling: If you need to disable the feature, you must either deploy your application again after removing the SDK or contact support to request remote disablement.

Games using multiple processes

If your game activities run in a separate process (use the android:process attribute in your AndroidManifest.xml's <application> tags), you must update the manifest by adding the following content providers. No other code changes are needed.

<application>
  [...]
  <provider
      android:name="com.google.android.play.deku.DekuContentProvider$Process1"
      android:authorities="insert.your.package.name.here.deku.contentprovider1"
      android:exported="false"
      android:process=":insert_name_of_process1_here" />

  <provider
      android:name="com.google.android.play.deku.DekuContentProvider$Process2"
      android:authorities="insert.your.package.name.here.deku.contentprovider2"
      android:exported="false"
      android:process=":insert_name_of_process2_here" />

  [...] <!-- Up to 5 processes ($Process1, $Process2, ..., $Process5) -->
</application>