Did you see that Google Play has reached 25 billion downloads? Google attributes this to Google Play now rolling out to the majority of Android 2.2 and above enabled devices. For those developers taking advantage of Google Play’s continued momentum, Google has just one bit of advice – use OAuth 2.0.
By now, developers are aware of OAuth 2.0 and its many advantages. Google points out that “the Internet already has too many usernames and passwords.” To cut down on needless complexity, Google has been pushing the use of OAuth 2.0 to process transactions on Google Play. They also have a few perks in it for those who do choose to use it.
Google says that they are making OAuth 2.0 authorization available to all Android apps that want to access Google APIs. There is a catch – these apps must features good user experiences and security. Apps that fulfill this request will be able to access OAuth 2.0, alongside an OAuth 2.0 token generator thanks to the Google APIs Client Library for Java.
For developers new to OAuth 2.0, Google has put together a nice tutorial of how to implement automatic token generation. They detail all the steps necessary to get OAuth 2.0 up and running in your Android app. They do point out that several things may go wrong, but they also feature contingency plans for when things do go wrong.
For more information, check out this great developer session from Google I/O that tackles OAuth 2.0: