What is the difference between Google Play Games sign in and Google sign in?
Google Play Games and Google sign-in are two similar but distinct ways for users to authenticate and access certain features on Android apps and games. Both utilize a Google account for login. However, Google Play Games focuses on gaming-specific features while Google sign-in is a more general authentication system.
Google Play Games is designed for game developers, allowing them to integrate gaming services like achievements, leaderboards, and multiplayer support. Google sign-in is a broader identity service that can be used by any app. While their capabilities differ, their login mechanisms cause confusion for some users.
This article will examine the key differences between Google Play Games and Google sign-in in terms of user data, game data, multi-platform support, ease of implementation, and user experience. Understanding the distinction can help developers decide which system to use in their games.
Google Play Games Sign-In
Google Play Games sign-in allows players to sign into mobile games using their Google account. It provides a unified gaming profile across Android devices and iOS using Apple’s Game Center.
When players first launch an Android game that supports Google Play Games sign-in, they are prompted to sign in with their Google account or create a new one. Once signed in, the game has access to the player’s Google profile information such as name, avatar, and connections. The game can also write app-specific game progress and achievements to the player’s Google Play Games profile, which is then synced across all their devices.
On iOS, players sign in using their Apple Game Center account, which links to their Google Play Games profile behind the scenes. This enables syncing of game progress and achievements across iOS and Android devices.
According to Google Play documentation, Google Play Games sign-in offers a seamless experience for players by eliminating the need to create separate accounts for each game. It also benefits developers by handling authentication and synchronization of player data across platforms.
Sources:
[https://developers.google.com/games/services/android/signin](https://developers.google.com/games/services/android/signin)
Google Sign-In
Google Sign-In is Google’s authentication system that allows users to sign in to websites and apps using their Google account. With Google Sign-In, users can sign in with their existing Google credentials rather than creating new accounts and passwords specifically for each site.
When a website or app prompts users to “Sign in with Google”, Google Sign-In allows a secure API call to Google to authenticate the user’s account. If the user isn’t logged into Google already, they will be asked to enter their Google username and password to sign in.
Once authenticated, Google Sign-In passes back an ID token to the site which contains basic user profile information such as their name, email address, and profile photo. This allows sites to identify and create accounts for users without needing to collect or store passwords.
Google Sign-In uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication and authorization. APIs are available for web and Android apps to easily integrate Google sign-in. For users, it provides a simple, secure, and consistent experience across sites. Developers benefit from simplified user account management without directly handling passwords.
See https://andyhacks.com/2020/04/25/everything-you-need-to-know-about-google-sign-in-for-web-apps/ for more details on how Google Sign-In works.
User Data
Google Sign-in accesses basic profile information such as your name, email address, and profile photo. It does not access any gameplay data or information from Google Play Games (1).
Google Play Games Sign-in accesses additional gameplay information tied to your Google account, such as achievements, leaderboards, and multiplayer functionality. It allows you to retain your progression across multiple games. However, it only works for games that integrate with Google Play Games services (2).
In summary, Google Sign-in provides basic profile data, while Google Play Games Sign-in provides access to advanced gameplay features and data associated with your Google account. The main difference is the extent of gameplay information accessed by each method.
Game Data
One key difference between Google Play Games sign-in and Google sign-in is how game data and progress are accessed and stored.
With Google Play Games sign-in, game progress and achievements are stored in the Google Play Games cloud. This allows games to sync data across multiple devices so players can pick up where they left off when switching devices. According to the Google Play support page, Google Play Games services enable features like achievements, leaderboards, multiplayer support, and cloud game saves.
In contrast, with Google sign-in, games do not have access to Play Games services. Progress is not synced across devices by default. Games would need to implement their own server backend to enable cross-device syncing and storage. According to a Reddit thread, Google sign-in simply provides a unique identifier for each user without any backend game services.
So in summary, Google Play Games sign-in provides full game data syncing and cloud storage through Google’s servers, while Google sign-in alone does not.
Multi-Platform Support
Both Google sign-in and Google Play Games sign-in offer cross-platform support, but there are some differences in the platforms supported:
Google sign-in supports:
- Android
- iOS
- Web (JavaScript)
Google Play Games sign-in only supports:
- Android
- iOS
So Google sign-in has broader platform support, including web, while Google Play Games sign-in is limited to mobile platforms.
Ease of Implementation
Google Play Games sign-in is specifically designed for gaming applications, so it can be easier for game developers to implement compared to regular Google sign-in. The Google Play Games SDK provides everything needed to add achievements, leaderboards, real-time multiplayer, and cloud saves to a game with just a few lines of code (Source). Developers simply need to integrate the SDK, call the GoogleApiClient sign-in method, and implement callbacks to handle the authentication flow.
On the other hand, implementing regular Google sign-in requires adding the Google Sign-In SDK, configuring OAuth, creating a GoogleSignInClient instance, and handling user interaction for sign-in and sign-out. While more complex than the games SDK, Google provides detailed integration guides to walk developers through the process (Source). The advantage is it enables sign-in access to all Google services, not just gaming features.
Overall, Google Play Games is simpler to add to a game, while Google sign-in takes more effort but delivers greater flexibility across Google’s ecosystem. Developers should weigh the pros and cons based on the specific needs of their application.
User Experience
The user experience differs between Google Play Games sign-in and regular Google sign-in. With Google Play Games sign-in, the focus is on gaming and connecting the user’s Google account to their games library and achievements across devices (source). This provides a seamless gaming experience, but is limited only to gaming applications.
Regular Google sign-in offers a broader, more universal user experience for signing in to any application, not just games. Users can leverage their existing Google account for simplified sign-in to a variety of apps and services (source). The downside is it does not provide the deep integration with Google Play Games like the specialized sign-in method does.
In summary, Google Play Games sign-in offers a superior user experience for gaming, while regular Google sign-in is better for general app authentication across multiple platforms and use cases.
Developer Experience
For developers, there are some key differences in the experience of implementing Google Play Games sign-in versus Google sign-in:
Google Play Games sign-in provides some advantages for game developers:
- Seamless integration with Google Play Games services like achievements, leaderboards, multiplayer support, etc. (1)
- Simplified implementation specifically designed for games.
- Single sign-in provides access to all Play Games services.
However, Google sign-in has some pros for developers as well:
- Works for both games and non-game apps.
- May allow access to more Google services beyond just gaming features.
- More customizable – developers have finer control over requested scopes and retrieved user data.
Overall, for game developers looking to tap into Play Games services, its specialized sign-in makes integration straightforward. But developers requiring more customization may prefer Google sign-in’s flexibility.
Summary
Google Play Games sign-in and Google sign-in offer two different authentication solutions for mobile games. The key differences are:
- Google Play Games sign-in is designed specifically for games, while Google sign-in can be used across all types of apps.
- Google Play Games sign-in provides access to player game data like achievements and leaderboards, while Google sign-in focuses on user identity and core account data.
- Google Play Games has built-in support for multi-platform gaming across Android, iOS and web, while Google sign-in is mainly used for Android apps and web.
- Google Play Games sign-in is easy for developers to implement with the Play Games SDK, while Google sign-in requires more custom integration.
- Google Play Games provides a streamlined gaming-focused user experience, while Google sign-in offers greater UI customization options.
The main use case for Google Play Games sign-in is multiplayer mobile games that need access to player data and profiles across platforms. Google sign-in is better suited for apps focused on core Google account features rather than gaming.