"This app won't run unless you update Google Play Services" when app is installed on real device

Question

When I install my app on Android devices running older versions (for example 4.4.4), I get this message. All the other posts I can see relating to this message seem to be when running on the emulator and related to Google Maps API. I am using Google Play Service 7.0.0.

Answer 1

This android developer's blog entry describes what's new in the version 7.0 of Google Play services.

If you don't need those you're good to go with version 6.5 which already uses new GoogleApiClient class and provides granular dependency modules (best described here and here.

In one of my projects i use this

compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:6.5.87'

It's the whole package and I'll pick only the modules I need before deployment. Works fine against target API 22.

The farthest version I'd go with would be

compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:6.1.71'

This one introduced the unified GoogleApiClient approach used today.

So should I use an older SDK?

Absolutely not, this is not an SDK related problem. Keep everything (build tools, compile SDK, target SDK) to 22.

is there a better way to handle this than asking my users to update their Google Play Services?

See above, use older version of the library with your project.