I solved the problem in june of 2017 changing the play-services versions for the latest firebase versions (9.6.1). When I used the latest play-services version (10.2.4) I got that error. The code in the gradle looks like this:
Before
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:10.2.4'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-places:10.2.4'
compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-core:9.6.1'
compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-auth:9.6.1'
After
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:9.6.1'
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-places:9.6.1'
compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-core:9.6.1'
compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-auth:9.6.1'