Overview of the Google Play Core library

This page describes the Google Play Core library and how to import it into your project.

What is Play Core?

The Play Core Library is your app’s runtime interface with the Google Play Store. Some of the things you can do with Play Core include the following:

The Play Core Library is available in Java, native, and Unity. For more information about the latest Play Core Library release, see the Release notes.

Import the Play Core Library into your project

Before you can start using the Play Core Library, you need to first import it into your app project. The steps you need to take depend on whether you're developing in Java, Kotlin, native, or are using Unity.

Java or Kotlin

If you’re developing your project using Java or Kotlin, you can import the Play Core Library into your Android project as a Gradle dependency, as shown below:

// In your app’s build.gradle file:
...
dependencies {
    // This dependency is downloaded from the Google’s Maven repository.
    // So, make sure you also include that repository in your project's build.gradle file.
    implementation 'com.google.android.play:core:1.7.3'

    // For Kotlin users also import the Kotlin extensions library for Play Core:
    implementation 'com.google.android.play:core-ktx:1.7.0'
    ...
}

The Play Core KTX library is optional and provides Kotlin coroutines versions for the asynchronous method calls in the regular Play Core library, as well as other useful extensions that make using the APIs more idiomatic from Kotlin.

Native

The Play Core Native SDK provides a C/C++ API interface for Play Asset Delivery. The SDK is designed for building ARM and x86 native libraries with CMake and for using Gradle to generate Android App Bundles and APKs.

Set up your development environment

  1. Do either of the following:

  2. Prepare Android Studio for native development by using the SDK Manager to install the latest CMake and Android Native Development Kit (NDK). For more information on creating or importing native projects, see Getting Started with the NDK.

  3. Download the zip file and extract it alongside your project.

    Download Link Size SHA-256 Checksum
    52.9 MB ac08ac35502456484d3768a86fbf86cffc58cc34a41cae7dfc55034ebf887dc5

  4. Update your app’s build.gradle file as shown below:

    // App build.gradle

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

// Define a path to the extracted Play Core SDK files.
// If using a relative path, wrap it with file() since CMake requires absolute paths.
def playcoreDir = file('../path/to/playcore-native-sdk')

android {
    defaultConfig {
        ...
        externalNativeBuild {
            cmake {
                // Define the PLAYCORE_LOCATION directive.
                arguments "-DANDROID_STL=c++_static",
                          "-DPLAYCORE_LOCATION=$playcoreDir"
            }
        }
        ndk {
            // Skip deprecated ABIs. Only required when using NDK 16 or earlier.
            abiFilters 'armeabi-v7a', 'arm64-v8a', 'x86', 'x86_64'
        }
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            // Include Play Core Library proguard config files to strip unused code while retaining the Java symbols needed for JNI.
            proguardFile "$playcoreDir/proguard/common.pgcfg"
            proguardFile "$playcoreDir/proguard/per-feature-proguard-files"
            ...
        }
        debug {
            ...
        }
    }
    externalNativeBuild {
        cmake {
            path 'src/main/CMakeLists.txt'
        }
    }
}

dependencies {
    // Use the Play Core AAR included with the SDK.
    implementation files("$playcoreDir/playcore.aar")
    ...
}

  5. Update your app’s CMakeLists.txt files as shown below:

    cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.6)

...

# Add a static library called “playcore” built with the c++_static STL.
include(${PLAYCORE_LOCATION}/playcore.cmake)
add_playcore_static_library()

// In this example “main” is your native code library, i.e. libmain.so.
add_library(main SHARED
        ...)

target_include_directories(main PRIVATE
        ${PLAYCORE_LOCATION}/include
        ...)

target_link_libraries(main
        android
        playcore
        ...)

Unity

Unity plugins are available for select Play Core APIs, including Play Asset Delivery. The preferred way to obtain these plugins depends on the version of Unity:

  • For Unity version 2018.4 and later, install the Game Package Registry for Unity. This will make individual packages available for installation through the Unity Package Manager.
  • For Unity version 2018.3 and prior, download the latest release from Google Play Plugins for Unity releases. This is a single package that includes Play Core plugins as well as other Play plugins, such as Play In-app Billing and Play Instant.

Download Play Core Native SDK

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Terms and Conditions

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Download Play Core Native SDK

Download Play Core Native SDK

play-core-native-sdk-1.8.0.zip