Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.
Google Play services SDKs sometimes include, or depend upon, open source libraries. To comply with the license requirements of open source libraries, you as a developer are responsible for appropriately displaying the notices for the open source libraries that your app uses.
Google Play services includes a set of tools designed to give developers an easier way to express the open source software (OSS) notices of libraries used in their apps. The oss-licenses-plugin and the Google Play services oss-licenses SDK collect license terms from included libraries, as declared in their POM files, and create an activity that can be used to display these terms. Learn more about how the tool finds and packages license information.
Add the Gradle plugin
In your pluginManagement of your project settings, do the following:
In your app-level build file, apply the plugin by adding the following line under the existing declaration of the com.android.application plugin at the top of the file:
When your app builds, the Gradle plugin processes the licenses and adds them to your app's resources. To easily display the license, you can launch an activity that's provided by the play-services-oss-licenses library at an appropriate point in your app, as shown in the following code snippet:
Kotlin
importcom.google.android.gms.oss.licenses.OssLicensesMenuActivity...// When the user selects an option to see the licenses:startActivity(Intent(this,OssLicensesMenuActivity::class.java))
Java
importcom.google.android.gms.oss.licenses.OssLicensesMenuActivity;...// When the user selects an option to see the licenses:startActivity(newIntent(this,OssLicensesMenuActivity.class));
When the activity is launched, it displays a list of open source libraries that are compiled into your app, including libraries used by the app, as shown in figure 1. Users can tap on the name of a library to view additional license information for that library.
Figure 1. The licenses menu activity shows a selectable list of open source libraries that an app uses.
Set the activity title
By default, the displayed activity has the title "Open source licenses". You can customize the title of the activity by calling setActivityTitle(), as shown in the following code snippet:
You can apply a theme to the activity to match the theme used in your app's other activities. To do so, include the open source license activity in an <activity> element within your app's manifest file, as shown in the following code snippet:
At compile time, the Gradle plugin scans the POM dependencies of your app's project. When a Maven POM exists for a direct dependency of the app, the plugin processes each <licenses> element and embeds the link and title of each license in an Android asset that's included with your app.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Play services uses open source libraries, requiring developers to display licenses.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eA Gradle plugin helps by gathering license information and creating an activity to display them.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eDevelopers need to add the plugin, the library dependency, and launch the provided activity in their app.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe license activity's title and theme can be customized.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe plugin scans POM dependencies to compile the license list, including those used by Google Play services itself.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Developers must display notices for open-source libraries used in their apps. Google Play services provides a Gradle plugin to streamline this. To use it, include the Google Maven repository and add the `oss-licenses` plugin in the root-level build file. Apply the plugin in the app-level build file and add the `oss-licenses` library as a dependency. The plugin then processes licenses from POM files and creates an activity via `OssLicensesMenuActivity` to display them. Developers can customize the activity's title and theme. The plugin scans direct and transitive dependencies, including those of Google Play services.\n"],null,["Google Play services SDKs sometimes include, or depend upon, open source\nlibraries. To comply with the license requirements of open source libraries, you\nas a developer are responsible for appropriately displaying the notices for the\nopen source libraries that your app uses.\n\nGoogle Play services includes a set of tools designed to give developers an\neasier way to express the open source software (OSS) notices of libraries used\nin their apps. The `oss-licenses-plugin` and the Google Play services\noss-licenses SDK collect license terms from included libraries, as declared in\ntheir POM files, and create an\n[activity](https://developer.android.com/guide/components/activities/intro-activities)\nthat can be used to display these terms. Learn more about\n[how the tool finds and packages license information](#how-licenses-are-determined).\n\nAdd the Gradle plugin\n\nIn your `pluginManagement` of your project settings, do the following:\n\n1. Include the [Google Maven repository](https://developer.android.com/studio/build/dependencies#google-maven).\n2. Resolve the `oss-licenses` plugin in the `PluginManagement`.\n\nThe following code snippet shows these steps: \n\nKotlin DSL\n\nsettings.gradle.kts \n\n```kotlin\npluginManagement {\n repositories {\n ...\n google()\n }\n resolutionStrategy {\n eachPlugin {\n if (requested.id.id == \"com.google.android.gms.oss-licenses-plugin\") {\n useModule(\"com.google.android.gms:oss-licenses-plugin:0.10.6\")\n }\n }\n }\n}\n```\n\nGroovy DSL\n\nbuild.gradle \n\n```groovy\npluginManagement {\n repositories {\n ...\n google()\n }\n resolutionStrategy {\n eachPlugin {\n if (requested.id.id == \"com.google.android.gms.oss-licenses-plugin\") {\n useModule(\"com.google.android.gms:oss-licenses-plugin:0.10.6\")\n }\n }\n }\n}\n```\n\nIn your app-level build file, apply the plugin by adding the following line\nunder the existing declaration of the `com.android.application` plugin at the\ntop of the file: \n\nKotlin DSL\n\napp/build.gradle.kts \n\n```kotlin\nplugins {\n id(\"com.android.application\")\n id(\"com.google.android.gms.oss-licenses-plugin\")\n}\n```\n\nGroovy DSL\n\napp/build.gradle \n\n```groovy\nplugins {\n id 'com.android.application'\n id 'com.google.android.gms.oss-licenses-plugin'\n}\n```\n\nYou can\n[view the code](https://github.com/google/play-services-plugins)\nfor this plugin on GitHub.\n\nAdd the `play-services-oss-licenses` library to your app\n\nIn the `dependencies` section of your app-level build file, add a dependency on\nthe `play-services-oss-licenses` library: \n\nKotlin DSL\n\nbuild.gradle.kts \n\n```kotlin\nimplementation(\"com.google.android.gms:play-services-oss-licenses:17.2.1\")\n```\n\nGroovy DSL\n\nbuild.gradle \n\n```groovy\nimplementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-oss-licenses:17.2.1'\n```\n\nDisplay license information\n\nWhen your app builds, the Gradle plugin processes the licenses and adds them to\nyour app's resources. To easily display the license, you can launch an activity\nthat's provided by the `play-services-oss-licenses` library at an appropriate\npoint in your app, as shown in the following code snippet: \n\nKotlin \n\n```kotlin\nimport com.google.android.gms.oss.licenses.OssLicensesMenuActivity\n...\n\n// When the user selects an option to see the licenses:\nstartActivity(Intent(this, OssLicensesMenuActivity::class.java))\n```\n\nJava \n\n```java\nimport com.google.android.gms.oss.licenses.OssLicensesMenuActivity;\n...\n\n// When the user selects an option to see the licenses:\nstartActivity(new Intent(this, OssLicensesMenuActivity.class));\n```\n\nWhen the activity is launched, it displays a list of open source libraries that\nare compiled into your app, including libraries used by the app, as shown in\nfigure 1. Users can tap on the name of a library to view additional license\ninformation for that library.\n\n**Figure 1.** The licenses menu activity shows a selectable list of open source\nlibraries that an app uses.\n\nSet the activity title\n\nBy default, the displayed activity has the title \"Open source licenses\". You can\ncustomize the title of the activity by calling\n[`setActivityTitle()`](/android/reference/com/google/android/gms/oss/licenses/OssLicensesMenuActivity#public-static-void-setactivitytitle-string-title),\nas shown in the following code snippet: \n\nKotlin \n\n```kotlin\nOssLicensesMenuActivity.setActivityTitle(getString(R.string.custom_license_title))\n```\n\nJava \n\n```java\nOssLicensesMenuActivity.setActivityTitle(getString(R.string.custom_license_title));\n```\n\nApply a theme to the activity\n\nYou can apply a theme to the activity to match the theme used in your app's\nother activities. To do so, include the open source license activity in an\n`\u003cactivity\u003e` element within your app's manifest file, as shown in the following\ncode snippet: \n\n```xml\n\u003capplication android:theme=\"@style/AppTheme\" ...\u003e\n \u003cactivity\n android:name=\"com.google.android.gms.oss.licenses.OssLicensesMenuActivity\"\n android:theme=\"@style/AppTheme\" /\u003e\n \u003cactivity\n android:name=\"com.google.android.gms.oss.licenses.OssLicensesActivity\"\n android:theme=\"@style/AppTheme\" /\u003e\n\u003c/application\u003e\n```\n\nHow the list of licenses is determined\n\nAt compile time, the Gradle plugin scans the POM dependencies of your app's\nproject. When a Maven POM exists for a direct dependency of the app, the plugin\nprocesses each [`\u003clicenses\u003e`](https://maven.apache.org/pom.html#Licenses)\nelement and embeds the link and title of each license in an Android asset that's\nincluded with your app.\n| **Note:** The list of licenses also includes the full license text of any library that is depended upon by the transitive closure of Google Play services libraries used by the app. This means that the list includes any open source libraries that are used to create the Google Play services libraries that are compiled into your app."]]
