It looks like multiplayer gaming across platforms will soon be built within the Google Play Games API, allowing for users to play against friends and foes alike even if they’re on iOS instead of Android. So fear not, you will soon be able to give your friends extra lives in Candy Crush even if they’re on an iPhone. 

Are you ready to face off against iOS users?  / © Google/AndroidPIT

Greg Hartrell of the Google Play team announced that one of their biggest additions that will be included in the next update is to enable cross-platform multiplayer support into the Google Play Games services.  As well, Google Play will support multiplayer invites and also make it easier to “share” in-game objects with people who you’re connected to in your circles.

Soon, in theory, you'll be able to give lives to even the lowliest iOS users. / © King.com

Of course, there are certain games that already perform this function already albeit at their own cost. With these changes to the API, developers won’t need to have their own servers to sync everything together or make tweaks to their own game to make it work. They will just need to include the Play API, and in theory, everything should just work from there.

Now, whether Apple will allow this whole thing work or not is an entirely other question. 

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