title: Is com.google.android.gms:play-services-base needed?
body: <p>Is the base library <code>com.google.android.gms:play-services-base</code> required for other Google Play Service libraries?</p>
  
  <p>I cannot find any indication that it would be needed. Also the guide to <a href="https://developers.google.com/android/guides/setup" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Set Up Google Play Services</a> only says:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Google Actions, Base Client
    Library   com.google.android.gms:play-services-base:16.1.0</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <h3>Side note:</h3>
  
  <p>An app is using these libraries, without base lib:</p>
  
  <pre><code>implementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:16.1.0'
  implementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:16.0.0'
  implementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-analytics:16.0.8'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The app reports some unreproducible crashes related to <code>com.google.android.gms.dynamite_mapsdynamite</code>, so I stumbled upon that base library.</p>