Google Brings Game Center Like Feature To Android

Google is bringing Android more in line with iPhone capabilities. Android Police recently discovered a soon-to-ship feature that may give Android OS the iPhone’s Game Center-like feature. Android users will also be able to chat with other players within a game in real-time, in addition to offering leader boards and allowing users to keep a track of achievements.

The future capability appears to support real-time multiplayer games, allowing users to play games with other connected players. It also appears to support turn-based multiplayer games, such as board games, where players take turns to play, and Android Police’s teardown reveals that users will also get notifications when it's their turn. 

The Android Police tear down goes out of the way to explain that this sort of disclosure is unusual for Google. They speculate that it was hastily sent out to developers, and while this is educated guesses from looking at the software, there is no release date and most of the software services exist server side.

 Still if this feature is truly destined for Android it is a long time in coming. The iPhone’s Game Center has been released since 2010, and it came at a time when there were multiple services to sync gaming information. All of them from different developers and nothing was coordinated between the apps. It was a nuisance to sign up for different services to do the same thing. 

For users the benefit is simple; one app where all gaming information can be found and synced, with no extra passwords to remember. For developers the benefit to having this feature is the ability to track users gaming habits and further gather social information on who they game with, what games, and when. The Game Center also helps solve app discovery, the singular problem all mobile app stores have. This is a benefit to app developers who struggle to get their apps in front of users.

So, why is this revolutionary? Perhaps it is not. At least not in the realm of changing the face of mobile devices, but currently Android does not have a single gaming platform. Android is screaming for a feature that will support achievement-like trophies, and platform-wide invite feature that encourages players to jump in with friends on games.