Googleplayservicescomponents: Upgrade to Google Play Services v15

[csdinon]

Xamarin.Android Version (eg: 6.0):

N/A

Operating System & Version (eg: Mac OSX 10.11):

N/A

Google Play Services Version (eg: 8.4.0):

N/A

Describe your Issue:

Google Play Services has been updated to v15.0.1, which puts this binding a couple of versions behind.
There's also a known issue that's causing a crash when checking if Google Play Services is available. According to the issue thread we need to upgrade to at least v12 to get the fix.
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/65359941#comment27

Steps to Reproduce (with link to sample solution if possible):

N/A

Include any relevant Exception Stack traces, build logs, adb logs:

Latest release notes
https://developers.google.com/android/guides/releases#march_28_2018_-_version_1201

[YoupHulsebos]

We would also like to build against v15.

@Redth do you have any info regarding this issue?

[keithfry-gm]

We're also adding a vote for GPS and Firebase v15.0.1

[akamud]

+1. Is this being worked on? The radio silence is very worrisome. Makes you question using Xamarin for apps that have a restrict time-to-market, since there is a similar problem happening with Ads Services (#110).

[Redth]

We are actively working on this now, sorry for the silence!

[akamud]

Awesome! Thank you for the update!

[Mr-Pearce]

Is There an ETA for this?
We especially in need of the auto Opt-In Features for the Firebase services.

[ToddThomson]

@Redth Thank-you for the update. Much needed for Google Fit API.

[Mr-Pearce]

@Redth Still no update here?

[Redth]

We are close to a preview release.

[horaciojcfilho]

Great, looking forward to it, thank you very much :)

[akamud]

Just noticed a preview was released. I'll try it on my app.

Thanks for the great work 🎉!

[ThomasDhaen]

I've opened a new issue for preview release #132
Seems like the dependencies are incorrect and I can not upgrade them in my project.

[newky2k]

a new preview has been released with a final release due in the coming weeks

[tsequeira-vhs]

I am using this new package 70.1501.0-preview2 but it gives me the following error.

Unhandled Exception:

Java.Lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "com.google.android.gms.fitness.FitnessOptions"
on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/com.company.name--1pxKF-8OXDvsrh0N3KfTQ==/base.apk"],
nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app/com.company.name--1pxKF-8OXDvsrh0N3KfTQ==/lib/arm,
/data/app/com.company.name--1pxKF-8OXDvsrh0N3KfTQ==/base.apk!/lib/armeabi-v7a, /system/lib]]

The app compiles fine but gives the above error at run time.

[Redth]

@tsequeira-vhs can you open a separate issue with a bit more information? what packages are you referencing, what does your code look like, maybe some diagnostic build output logs?

[dpawarslb]

Hi Team,
As per recommendation (https://developers.google.com/places/android-sdk/client-migration) from January 29, 2019, Google Play Services Places is required to be upgraded to version 16.0.0.
Currently the library is using the Google Play Services Places SDK version 11.4.2, which will stop functioning from July 29, 2019.
Please upgrade the library version for using the latest Google Play Services Places SDK version 16.0.0.
Thanks.