Get Google Sheets Last Edit date using Sheets API v4 (Java)

It looks like this cannot be done with Sheets API v4.

However...it does look like it can be done with the compatible Google Drive API v3.

Note: the best part about this solution was that I could use the same method of authentication and credential gathering for both APIs. E.g., once I had the code for getting the credentials, I could use it for both API's interchangeably and consecutively.

Here's what I did:

Added this to my build.gradle (shown below my Sheets API declaration)

compile('com.google.apis:google-api-services-sheets:v4-rev468-1.22.0') {
    exclude group: 'org.apache.httpcomponents'
}
compile('com.google.apis:google-api-services-drive:v3-rev69-1.22.0') {
    exclude group: 'org.apache.httpcomponents'
}

I was already using the EasyPermissions method for getting account and credentials. Great example here.

Then...

import com.google.api.services.drive.Drive;

...

protected Drive driveService = new Drive.Builder(transport, jsonFactory, credential)
            .setApplicationName("My Application Name")
            .build();

... async:

private DateTime getSheetInformation() throws IOException {

    String spreadsheetId = settings.getSpreadsheetId();
    Drive.Files.Get fileRequest = driveService.files().get(spreadsheetId).setFields("id, modifiedTime");
    File file = fileRequest.execute();
    if (file != null) {
        return file.getModifiedTime();
    }
    return null;
}

The sheets api v3 will be deprecated in March 2020, when that happens, your best bet is to use the drive API.

https://developers.google.com/drive/api/v3/reference/files/list

you can pass

This is not available in the Sheets API, but you may be able to use the Drive API's files.get method, which includes a 'modifiedTime' in the response. (Note that by default it will not include the modified time, you have to explicitly ask for it in the 'fields' parameter.)