Camera and view

  • The Maps SDK for Android allows developers to control the user's view of the map by manipulating the camera's position, zoom level, tilt, and bearing.

  • Developers can programmatically move the camera, set zoom limits, and restrict panning to specific areas using methods provided by the SDK.

  • Camera updates can be applied instantly using moveCamera() or animated smoothly using animateCamera(), offering flexibility in user experience design.

  • LatLngBounds is used to define areas of interest, enabling features like centering the map within specific boundaries and constraining camera movement.

  • Map padding can be applied to ensure that important map elements are not obscured by UI elements when the camera is moved programmatically.
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The maps in the Maps SDK for Android can be tilted and rotated with easy gestures, giving users the ability to adjust the map with an orientation that makes sense for them. At any zoom level, you can pan the map, or change its perspective with very little latency thanks to the smaller footprint of the vector-based map tiles.

Code samples

The ApiDemos repository on GitHub includes a sample that demonstrates the camera features:

Introduction

Like Google Maps on the web, the Maps SDK for Android represents the world's surface (a sphere) on your device's screen (a flat plane) using the Mercator projection. In the east and west direction, the map is repeated infinitely as the world seamlessly wraps around on itself. In the north and south direction the map is limited to approximately 85 degrees north and 85 degrees south.

Note: A Mercator projection has a finite width longitudinally but an infinite height latitudinally. We "cut off" base map imagery utilizing the Mercator projection at approximately +/- 85 degrees to make the resulting map shape square, which allows easier logic for tile selection.

The Maps SDK for Android allows you to change the user's viewpoint of the map by modifying the map's camera.

Changes to the camera will not make any changes to markers, overlays, or other graphics you've added, although you may want to change your additions to fit better with the new view.

Because you can listen for user gestures on the map, you can change the map in response to user requests. For example, the callback method OnMapClickListener.onMapClick() responds to a single tap on the map. Because the method receives the latitude and longitude of the tap location, you can respond by panning or zooming to that point. Similar methods are available for responding to taps on a marker's bubble or for responding to a drag gesture on a marker.

You can also listen for camera movements, so that your app receives a notification when the camera starts moving, is currently moving, or stops moving. For details, see the guide to camera change events.

The camera position

The map view is modeled as a camera looking down on a flat plane. The position of the camera (and hence the rendering of the map) is specified by the following properties: target (latitude/longitude location), bearing, tilt, and zoom.

Camera properties diagram

Target (location)

The camera target is the location of the center of the map, specified as latitude and longitude coordinates.

The latitude can be between -85 and 85 degrees, inclusive. Values above or below this range will be clamped to the nearest value within this range. For example, specifying a latitude of 100 will set the value to 85. Longitude ranges between -180 and 180 degrees, inclusive. Values above or below this range will be wrapped such that they fall within the range (-180, 180). For example, 480, 840 and 1200 will all be wrapped to 120 degrees.

Bearing (orientation)

The camera bearing specifies the compass direction, measured in degrees from true north, corresponding to the top edge of the map. If you draw a vertical line from the center of the map to the top edge of the map, the bearing corresponds to the heading of the camera (measured in degrees) relative to true north.

A bearing of 0 means that the top of the map points to true north. A bearing value 90 means the top of the map points due east (90 degrees on a compass). A value 180 means the top of the map points due south.

The Maps API lets you change a map's bearing. For example, someone driving a car often turns a road map to align it with their direction of travel, while hikers using a map and compass usually orient the map so that a vertical line is pointing north.

Tilt (viewing angle)

The tilt defines the camera's position on an arc directly over the map's center position, measured in degrees from the nadir (the direction pointing directly below the camera). A value of 0 corresponds to a camera pointed straight down. Values greater than 0 correspond to a camera that is pitched toward the horizon by the specified number of degrees. When you change the viewing angle, the map appears in perspective, with far-away features appearing smaller, and nearby features appearing larger. The following illustrations demonstrate this.