Is it possible to remove com.google.android.gms.version from AndroidManifest when I use gradle?

Question

I wonder if I can safely remove this line:

<meta-data android:name="com.google.android.gms.version" android:value="@integer/google_play_services_version" />

from my AndroidManifest.xml when I use gradle to build the APK.

According to the website https://developers.google.com/android/guides/setup , only when I select "ECLIPSE WITH ADT" should I add this line. For the use of ANDROID STUDIO this is not mentioned.

But in my case, I use Eclipse (with ADT) as an IDE, but I create using gradle. (This is actually a libGDX project). So I added game services with gradle:

compile "com.google.android.gms:play-services:8.1.0"

So, I ran the application on a test device, and I tested it to enter the game services, and it worked fine without having the line above in my AndroidManifest.xml

But maybe, to enter the system, the value "com.google.android.gms.version" is simply not required, and it needs another part of the playback library? But I can not check all the possible ways to use lib.

Does anyone know for sure?

Or for those of you who use Android Studio + gaming services: does your AndroidManifest.xml have the line above?

Answer 1

Yes, with Google Play 7.0 (improved in 7.5 to remove the restriction on applying to full dependency play-services), the tag is <meta-data>automatically added to your manifest file using Gradle through the Merge Manifest .