Google Play Services keeps growing madly - no options to make it stop?!

[Android Central Question]

What monstrosity is this?! Just noticed Google Play Services app on my phone had grown to over 335 MB in size. I figured it was malfunctioning, so I disabled and reinstalled it. This helped only a short time, however. Now it is back up to 178 MB just 15 minutes later. Running Nougat on a two year old Droid Maxx 2, so the only options I get offered under Settings for Google Play Services is to "Disable" or "Force Stop" - or to"Disable Updates" (in top right corner).

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! That's normal. Google Play Services is integral to pretty much all Google app and services (as the name implies). It's how Google can continue to update and improve the functionality of the system without waiting for a full system update. There's not much you can do about it, if you want to keep using Google services.