With the new Android O developer preview, the company is adding the final API to the platform and this means a new version of Google Play Service is out. The changelog is large but here are some notable changes. . .

- SmsRetriever API is the SMS verification API mentioned above. It allows apps to listen for incoming SMS messages intended for them without asking users for permission to read all of their messages. This means phone number verifications can be entirely seamless with no authorization dialogs or manual steps to copy a code from a text message. It works by giving a unique hash to apps so they can pass it back to the developer's server. That hash should then be sent via SMS to the user's phone and parsed by Play services. Once a message with the hash is identified, it will be passed directly to the primary app.
- The RemoteMediaPlayer class has been deprecated from the Cast API. If you're using the Cast SDK v2, there is a guide available for migrating to Cast SDK v3.
- As we were told during I/O, all developers are now free to build Instant Apps. Details can be found here.
- Significant additions to Nearby and SafetyNet APIs, as well as some handy new classes for working with the Fused Location Provider and Awareness capabilities.