Start integrating Google+ into your iOS app

Before you can begin integrating your iOS app with the Google+ components, you must create a Google Developers Console project, download the SDK, and configure your Xcode project. The steps on this page do just that. The next steps then describe how to integrate Google+ features into your app.

You can try out the quick-start sample app if you would like to quickly experiment with features of the platform.

Before you begin

• Download the latest Google+ iOS SDK, which requires iOS 6 or higher.
• (Optional) Try the quick-start sample project, which is in the SampleCode directory in the SDK.
• Install Xcode 4.5 or later

Step 1. Creating the Google Developers Console project

To enable the Google+ API for your app, create a Google Developers Console project, enable the Google+ API, then create a client ID.

1. Go to the Google Developers Console .
2. From the project drop-down, select a project , or create a new one.
3. Enable the Google+ API service:
   1. In the list of Google APIs, search for the Google+ API service.
   2. Select Google+ API from the results list.
   3. Select Enable API.
   When the process completes, Google+ API appears in the list of enabled APIs. To access, select API Manager on the left sidebar menu, then select the Enabled APIs tab. Enable any other APIs that your app requires.
4. In the sidebar under "API Manager", select Credentials, then select the OAuth consent screen tab.
   1. Choose an Email Address, specify a Product Name, and select Save.
5. In the Credentials tab, select the New credentials drop-down list, and choose OAuth client ID.
   1. Under Application type, select iOS.
   2. Enter a name for your Client ID.
   3. In the Bundle ID field, enter the bundle identifier from your application's project summary.
   4. If your app is published in the Apple iTunes App Store, enter your app's App Store identifier in the App Store ID field. You can determine the ID from the "id" part of your app's URL on the iTunes website: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id<YOUR_APP_STORE_ID>.
   5. Select the Create button.
6. In the resulting Client ID for iOS application pop-up, note or copy the Client ID that your app will need to run the sample.

Step 2. Initialize the Google+ Client

Initializing the client sets up your project with the minimal settings. Depending on your app's needs, you will further configure your project to handle signing in with Google+, sharing, and writing app activities to Google.

1. Download the Google+ iOS SDK, if you haven't already. The SDK includes:

   • GooglePlus.framework
   • GooglePlus.bundle resource bundle with assets for the Google+ Sign-In button.
   • GoogleOpenSource.framework which is a static framework that contains all of the files within the OpenSource directory.
   • The sample Xcode project.

2. Extract the files from the downloaded SDK archive.

3. Include the following frameworks in your Xcode project:

   • AddressBook.framework
   • AssetsLibrary.framework
   • Foundation.framework
   • CoreLocation.framework
   • CoreMotion.framework
   • CoreGraphics.framework
   • CoreText.framework
   • MediaPlayer.framework
   • Security.framework
   • SystemConfiguration.framework
   • UIKit.framework

4. Drag and drop the following frameworks from the SDK into your XCode project:

   • GooglePlus.framework
   • GoogleOpenSource.framework

   If your project already includes some of the open source files, you can instead include the remaining files from the OpenSource folder.

5. If you plan to use the sign-in button provided by the SDK, include the GooglePlus.bundle in your XCode project to add it to your target.

6. Add the ObjC linker flag to the app target's build settings:

   Other Linker Flags: -ObjC
   

7. In your app's controller, set your client ID:

   static NSString * const kClientId = @"YOUR_CLIENT_ID";
   

Step 3. Add a URL type

In your app's Info tab, add a URL type and enter your bundle ID as the identifier and scheme:

Next steps

Now that you created your Google Developers Console project and configured your xcode project, you can add your choice of Google+ features to your app:

• Sign in with Google
• Create interactive posts
• Manage app activities
• Fetch people information

Frequently asked questions

I'm getting the error ARC forbids explicit message send of 'autorelease'.

You need to disable "Automatic Reference Counting" for select files in the Google+ iOS SDK. Navigate to your project's settings, click Targets > Build Phases > and add the -fno-objc-arc compiler flag for every open source dependency provided by the Google+ iOS SDK.