Google Play Services REQUIRED for Upcoming BlackBerry 10 Android MapView v2 Support?

Ghost Google Maps

Now here is an interesting new wrinkle about the upcoming changes to the Android Runtime for BlackBerry 10. BlackBerry confirmed today that they will be making some serious updates to the Android Runtime for BlackBerry 10 in OS 10.2.1. One of those changes is allowing developers with maps in their apps to use MapView from Google Maps v1 API powered by OpenStreetMaps. The thing is that the MapView v1 API was depreciated awhile ago and Google stopped giving out API keys to use it early this year (March 2013 I think was the last date). That v1 API only required Google Maps or an app that mimicked the API responses.

The MapView v1 API was replaced by the v2 API that was released in late 2012. BlackBerry promised that “support for MapView v2 API is being planned for a future release” which is nice to see. This v2 API is more complex and offers more features but requires the key “Google Play Services” to be installed. This is something that is required by many Google apps and services (including Google Play Store) and something that is not currently available on BlackBerry 10. We have been seeing BlackBerry making some changes to what is whitelisted on the Android Runtime so it make you wonder…

Can BlackBerry possibly be bringing over Google Play Services to BlackBerry 10 or did they find a way around it? Could this possibly be the source of the rumors of Google Play coming to BlackBerry 10?

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