diff --git a/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/BuiltInOpenTelemetryMetricsProvider.java b/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/BuiltInOpenTelemetryMetricsProvider.java
index 58f98db22c7..a980204950a 100644
--- a/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/BuiltInOpenTelemetryMetricsProvider.java
+++ b/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/BuiltInOpenTelemetryMetricsProvider.java
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
 import static com.google.cloud.opentelemetry.detection.GCPPlatformDetector.SupportedPlatform.GOOGLE_KUBERNETES_ENGINE;
 import static com.google.cloud.spanner.BuiltInMetricsConstant.CLIENT_NAME_KEY;
 import static com.google.cloud.spanner.BuiltInMetricsConstant.CLIENT_UID_KEY;
-import static com.google.cloud.spanner.BuiltInMetricsConstant.DIRECT_PATH_ENABLED_KEY;
 import static com.google.cloud.spanner.BuiltInMetricsConstant.INSTANCE_CONFIG_ID_KEY;
 import static com.google.cloud.spanner.BuiltInMetricsConstant.LOCATION_ID_KEY;
 import static com.google.cloud.spanner.BuiltInMetricsConstant.PROJECT_ID_KEY;
@@ -76,15 +75,12 @@ OpenTelemetry getOrCreateOpenTelemetry(String projectId, @Nullable Credentials c
     }
   }
 
-  Map<String, String> createClientAttributes(
-      String projectId, boolean isDirectPathChannelCreated, String client_name) {
+  Map<String, String> createClientAttributes(String projectId, String client_name) {
     Map<String, String> clientAttributes = new HashMap<>();
     clientAttributes.put(LOCATION_ID_KEY.getKey(), detectClientLocation());
     clientAttributes.put(PROJECT_ID_KEY.getKey(), projectId);
     // TODO: Replace this with real value.
     clientAttributes.put(INSTANCE_CONFIG_ID_KEY.getKey(), "unknown");
-    clientAttributes.put(
-        DIRECT_PATH_ENABLED_KEY.getKey(), String.valueOf(isDirectPathChannelCreated));
     clientAttributes.put(CLIENT_NAME_KEY.getKey(), client_name);
     clientAttributes.put(CLIENT_UID_KEY.getKey(), getDefaultTaskValue());
     return clientAttributes;
diff --git a/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/SpannerOptions.java b/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/SpannerOptions.java
index 8968b7ecde4..1a9f2c49a42 100644
--- a/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/SpannerOptions.java
+++ b/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/SpannerOptions.java
@@ -1652,16 +1652,15 @@ public OpenTelemetry getOpenTelemetry() {
 
   @Override
   public ApiTracerFactory getApiTracerFactory() {
-    return createApiTracerFactory(false, false, false);
+    return createApiTracerFactory(false, false);
   }
 
-  public ApiTracerFactory getApiTracerFactory(
-      boolean isDirectPathChannelCreated, boolean isAdminClient, boolean isEmulatorEnabled) {
-    return createApiTracerFactory(isDirectPathChannelCreated, isAdminClient, isEmulatorEnabled);
+  public ApiTracerFactory getApiTracerFactory(boolean isAdminClient, boolean isEmulatorEnabled) {
+    return createApiTracerFactory(isAdminClient, isEmulatorEnabled);
   }
 
   private ApiTracerFactory createApiTracerFactory(
-      boolean isDirectPathChannelCreated, boolean isAdminClient, boolean isEmulatorEnabled) {
+      boolean isAdminClient, boolean isEmulatorEnabled) {
     List<ApiTracerFactory> apiTracerFactories = new ArrayList<>();
     // Prefer any direct ApiTracerFactory that might have been set on the builder.
     apiTracerFactories.add(
@@ -1670,8 +1669,7 @@ private ApiTracerFactory createApiTracerFactory(
     // Add Metrics Tracer factory if built in metrics are enabled and if the client is data client
     // and if emulator is not enabled.
     if (isEnableBuiltInMetrics() && !isAdminClient && !isEmulatorEnabled) {
-      ApiTracerFactory metricsTracerFactory =
-          createMetricsApiTracerFactory(isDirectPathChannelCreated);
+      ApiTracerFactory metricsTracerFactory = createMetricsApiTracerFactory();
       if (metricsTracerFactory != null) {
         apiTracerFactories.add(metricsTracerFactory);
       }
@@ -1696,7 +1694,7 @@ private ApiTracerFactory getDefaultApiTracerFactory() {
     return BaseApiTracerFactory.getInstance();
   }
 
-  private ApiTracerFactory createMetricsApiTracerFactory(boolean isDirectPathChannelCreated) {
+  private ApiTracerFactory createMetricsApiTracerFactory() {
     OpenTelemetry openTelemetry =
         this.builtInOpenTelemetryMetricsProvider.getOrCreateOpenTelemetry(
             getDefaultProjectId(), getCredentials());
@@ -1706,7 +1704,6 @@ private ApiTracerFactory createMetricsApiTracerFactory(boolean isDirectPathChann
             new OpenTelemetryMetricsRecorder(openTelemetry, BuiltInMetricsConstant.METER_NAME),
             builtInOpenTelemetryMetricsProvider.createClientAttributes(
                 getDefaultProjectId(),
-                isDirectPathChannelCreated,
                 "spanner-java/" + GaxProperties.getLibraryVersion(getClass())))
         : null;
   }
diff --git a/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/GapicSpannerRpc.java b/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/GapicSpannerRpc.java
index d4779ba956f..b389ea6a31a 100644
--- a/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/GapicSpannerRpc.java
+++ b/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/GapicSpannerRpc.java
@@ -370,18 +370,9 @@ public GapicSpannerRpc(final SpannerOptions options) {
       // If it is enabled in options uses the channel pool provided by the gRPC-GCP extension.
       maybeEnableGrpcGcpExtension(defaultChannelProviderBuilder, options);
 
-      InstantiatingGrpcChannelProvider defaultChannelProvider = null;
-      boolean isDirectPathChannelCreated = false;
-
-      if (options.getChannelProvider() == null) {
-        defaultChannelProvider = defaultChannelProviderBuilder.build();
-        isDirectPathChannelCreated =
-            defaultChannelProvider.canUseDirectPath()
-                && defaultChannelProvider.isDirectPathXdsEnabled();
-      }
-
       TransportChannelProvider channelProvider =
-          MoreObjects.firstNonNull(options.getChannelProvider(), defaultChannelProvider);
+          MoreObjects.firstNonNull(
+              options.getChannelProvider(), defaultChannelProviderBuilder.build());
 
       CredentialsProvider credentialsProvider =
           GrpcTransportOptions.setUpCredentialsProvider(options);
@@ -411,9 +402,7 @@ public GapicSpannerRpc(final SpannerOptions options) {
                     .setStreamWatchdogProvider(watchdogProvider)
                     .setTracerFactory(
                         options.getApiTracerFactory(
-                            isDirectPathChannelCreated,
-                            /* isAdminClient = */ false,
-                            isEmulatorEnabled(options, emulatorHost)))
+                            /* isAdminClient = */ false, isEmulatorEnabled(options, emulatorHost)))
                     .build());
         this.readRetrySettings =
             options.getSpannerStubSettings().streamingReadSettings().getRetrySettings();
@@ -443,9 +432,7 @@ public GapicSpannerRpc(final SpannerOptions options) {
             .setStreamWatchdogProvider(watchdogProvider)
             .setTracerFactory(
                 options.getApiTracerFactory(
-                    isDirectPathChannelCreated,
-                    /* isAdminClient = */ false,
-                    isEmulatorEnabled(options, emulatorHost)))
+                    /* isAdminClient = */ false, isEmulatorEnabled(options, emulatorHost)))
             .executeSqlSettings()
             .setRetrySettings(partitionedDmlRetrySettings);
         pdmlSettings.executeStreamingSqlSettings().setRetrySettings(partitionedDmlRetrySettings);
@@ -474,9 +461,7 @@ public GapicSpannerRpc(final SpannerOptions options) {
                 .setStreamWatchdogProvider(watchdogProvider)
                 .setTracerFactory(
                     options.getApiTracerFactory(
-                        isDirectPathChannelCreated,
-                        /* isAdminClient = */ true,
-                        isEmulatorEnabled(options, emulatorHost)))
+                        /* isAdminClient = */ true, isEmulatorEnabled(options, emulatorHost)))
                 .build();
         this.instanceAdminStub = GrpcInstanceAdminStub.create(instanceAdminStubSettings);
 
@@ -489,9 +474,7 @@ public GapicSpannerRpc(final SpannerOptions options) {
                 .setStreamWatchdogProvider(watchdogProvider)
                 .setTracerFactory(
                     options.getApiTracerFactory(
-                        isDirectPathChannelCreated,
-                        /* isAdminClient = */ true,
-                        isEmulatorEnabled(options, emulatorHost)))
+                        /* isAdminClient = */ true, isEmulatorEnabled(options, emulatorHost)))
                 .build();
 
         // Automatically retry RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED for GetOperation if auto-throttling of
diff --git a/google-cloud-spanner/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/OpenTelemetryBuiltInMetricsTracerTest.java b/google-cloud-spanner/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/OpenTelemetryBuiltInMetricsTracerTest.java
index 7bfdb99ca90..51d334c1726 100644
--- a/google-cloud-spanner/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/OpenTelemetryBuiltInMetricsTracerTest.java
+++ b/google-cloud-spanner/src/test/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/OpenTelemetryBuiltInMetricsTracerTest.java
@@ -88,13 +88,12 @@ public static void setup() {
 
     String client_name = "spanner-java/";
     openTelemetry = OpenTelemetrySdk.builder().setMeterProvider(meterProvider.build()).build();
-    attributes = provider.createClientAttributes("test-project", true, client_name);
+    attributes = provider.createClientAttributes("test-project", client_name);
 
     expectedBaseAttributes =
         Attributes.builder()
             .put(BuiltInMetricsConstant.PROJECT_ID_KEY, "test-project")
             .put(BuiltInMetricsConstant.INSTANCE_CONFIG_ID_KEY, "unknown")
-            .put(BuiltInMetricsConstant.DIRECT_PATH_ENABLED_KEY, "true")
             .put(
                 BuiltInMetricsConstant.LOCATION_ID_KEY,
                 BuiltInOpenTelemetryMetricsProvider.detectClientLocation())