diff --git a/google-cloud-pubsub/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/pubsub/spi/v1/PollingSubscriberConnection.java b/google-cloud-pubsub/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/pubsub/spi/v1/PollingSubscriberConnection.java
index 3ee825efff80..dfa43052cd2a 100644
--- a/google-cloud-pubsub/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/pubsub/spi/v1/PollingSubscriberConnection.java
+++ b/google-cloud-pubsub/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/pubsub/spi/v1/PollingSubscriberConnection.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 import com.google.cloud.pubsub.spi.v1.MessageDispatcher.AckProcessor;
 import com.google.cloud.pubsub.spi.v1.MessageDispatcher.PendingModifyAckDeadline;
 import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
+import com.google.common.primitives.Ints;
 import com.google.common.util.concurrent.FutureCallback;
 import com.google.common.util.concurrent.Futures;
 import com.google.common.util.concurrent.ListenableFuture;
@@ -70,7 +71,7 @@ public PollingSubscriberConnection(
       Distribution ackLatencyDistribution,
       Channel channel,
       FlowController flowController,
-      @Nullable Integer maxDesiredPulledMessages,
+      @Nullable Long maxDesiredPulledMessages,
       ScheduledExecutorService executor,
       @Nullable ScheduledExecutorService alarmsExecutor,
       ApiClock clock) {
@@ -90,7 +91,9 @@ public PollingSubscriberConnection(
             clock);
     messageDispatcher.setMessageDeadlineSeconds(Subscriber.MIN_ACK_DEADLINE_SECONDS);
     this.maxDesiredPulledMessages =
-        maxDesiredPulledMessages != null ? maxDesiredPulledMessages : DEFAULT_MAX_MESSAGES;
+        maxDesiredPulledMessages != null
+            ? Ints.saturatedCast(maxDesiredPulledMessages)
+            : DEFAULT_MAX_MESSAGES;
   }
 
   @Override
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index e04e89dca7f7..3c8b4cdb5e96 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -129,9 +129,10 @@
     <site.installationModule>google-cloud</site.installationModule>
 
     <api-client.version>1.21.0</api-client.version>
+
     <api-common.version>1.1.0</api-common.version>
-    <gax.version>1.0.0</gax.version>
-    <gax-grpc.version>0.16.0</gax-grpc.version>
+    <gax.version>1.1.0</gax.version>
+    <gax-grpc.version>0.17.0</gax-grpc.version>
     <generatedProto.version>0.1.9</generatedProto.version>
     <google.auth.version>0.6.1</google.auth.version>
     <grpc.version>1.2.0</grpc.version>