A while back, Google announced some new features and services that enabled game developers to engage with the people who played their mobile games. This service was added to the Google Play Games platform and was known as Google Play Games Services. A number of these features and services have been popular among the developer community, but some of them have not been so popular and that is why Google has decided to announce they'll be discontinuing a few of them.
To start things off, Google announced they were ending support for the creation of Google Play Games accounts on iOS devices back in December of last year. This was due to the small amount of iOS developers who were actually using the service and it just didn't make sense for Google to continue support for it. Google's latest Native SDK release of Google Play Games Services (which is version 2.3) no longer supports integration with the iOS platform, and the company will not be supporting or updating the iOS SDK anymore.
This was news we had already known from the previous announcement, but it has also been confirmed that Google will be ceasing support for a number of Android services within Google Play Games Services. Some developers are using tools here to engage and monitor reports, while other features aren't being used as much. Effective March 31st, 2018, Google will no longer support the Gifts, Requests, and Quests features of Google Play Games Services.
Google is giving developers about 12 months to prepare for these changes so there won't be any surprises when it happens. As mentioned previously, the other services within Google Play Games Services that are still being used a lot will continue to be supported. Google specifically mentions that features such as Sign-in, Achievements, Leaderboards, and Multiplayer will all continue to be supported and improved upon.
Do you use the Gifts, Requests, or Quests features in any of the mobile games you play? If so, will you be sad to see these features removed from said games? Let us know below!