Clarification on using both play-services-ads and play-services-ads-lite SDK 24.6.0

[Vishwajith Shettigar]

Hi team,

We are planning to upgrade our Android app’s Google Mobile Ads SDK to 24.6.0 version.

According to the official documentation:

“Starting with version 24.1.0, the play-services-ads-lite artifact stops releasing at the same cadence as play-services-ads.
The Lite SDK releases approximately every third SDK release.
Projects that depend on both play-services-ads-lite version 24.0.0 or lower and play-services-ads version 24.1.0 or higher encounter a Duplicate class error.”

We have a questions

Is it safe or supported to include both play-services-ads:24.6.0 and play-services-ads-lite:24.6.0 together in the same project?

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi, 

Thank you for contacting the Mobile Ads SDK Support team.

In play-services-ads SDK includes the full implementation and provides the most reliable experience, as it can serve ads even on devices with outdated or missing Google Play services by using a local copy of the ad implementation.

On the other side play-services-ads-lite is the lightweight SDK which strips out the local ad implementation, relying entirely on the Google Play services APK on the user's device for ad serving.

Do not include both play-services-ads and play-services-ads-lite in the same project. Choose the full SDK unless you have a specific, strong reason to prioritize the size savings of the Lite SDK.

Let me know if you have any other queries related to the Google Mobile Ads SDK.

Thanks,
 

Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[2025-10-15 14:35:15Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01vQr0w:ref" (ADR-00335572)

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Could you please share the business logic for including both play-services-ads and play-services-ads-lite in your project?

Additionally, if you're using any specific methods or implementation approaches that require both, we’d appreciate it if you could provide those details. This will help us better understand your use case.

Thanks,
 

Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[2025-10-15 21:28:07Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01vQr0w:ref" (ADR-00335572)

[Vishwajith Shettigar]

Thanks for your response, but we have strong reason to use both. Can you please confirm we can have both of version 24.6.0?

[Vishwajith Shettigar]

We are currently using the GAM SDK Lite in our non-DFM modules and the full GAM SDK in our DFM modules, both on version 23.5.0.

Since the release cadence and packaging of GAM Lite have changed starting with version 24.0, we’d like to confirm whether it’s still supported to include both play-services-ads-lite and play-services-ads within the same project after upgrading to version 24.6.0.

.

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for getting back to us.

I will check with our team regarding your issue and one of my team members will reach out to you once we have an update on this. Meanwhile, your patience is highly appreciated.

Thanks,
 

Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[2025-10-16 09:48:26Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01vQr0w:ref" (ADR-00335572)

[Mobile Ads SDK Forum Advisor]

Hello Vishwajith,



Thanks for reaching out.

We don't have documentation for including both the full and lite SDKs because this is not a standard configuration, which is to add only one of the SDKs to your app-level build file.

Attempting to include both might cause build errors due to dependency and duplicate class path conflicts.

As a separate FYI, we did release version 24.6.0 for both SDKs on September 8, 2025. You can see the details in the Play services release notes: https://developers.google.com/android/guides/releases#september_08_2025.



 

Thanks,
 

Joshua Mobile Ads SDK Team

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[2025-10-22 17:06:19Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01vQr0w:ref" (ADR-00335572)