Google Places API for Android Release Notes

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This page is updated with each new release of the Google Places API for Android. The changelog lists the releases by date and includes any new features, bug fixes and significant performance improvements.

Consult the getting-started guide for information on how to download the Google Places API for Android and set up your development environment.

December 17, 2015

• This release adds the autocomplete widget, a search dialog with built-in autocomplete functionality. As a user enters search terms, the widget presents a list of predicted places to choose from. Autocomplete functionality has also been added to the place picker.

September 24, 2015

• This release adds three new methods to AutocompletePrediction, giving you easy access to the primary and secondary parts of the place description as well as the full text of the description. This is useful, for example, when you want to display a short title followed by further detail about the place. See the sample code on GitHub. The new methods are as follows:

  • getFullText(CharacterStyle matchStyle) returns the full text of a place description. This is a combination of the primary and secondary text. Example: "Eiffel Tower, Avenue Anatole France, Paris, France". This method is equivalent to the existing getDescription() method. In addition, it lets you highlight the sections of the description that match the search with a style of your choice, using CharacterStyle. The CharacterStyle parameter is optional. Set it to null if you don't need any highlighting.
  • getPrimaryText(CharacterStyle matchStyle) returns the main text describing a place. This is usually the name of the place. Examples: "Eiffel Tower", and "123 Pitt Street".
  • getSecondaryText(CharacterStyle matchStyle) returns the subsidiary text of a place description. This is useful, for example, as a second line when showing autocomplete predictions. Examples: "Avenue Anatole France, Paris, France", and "Sydney, New South Wales".

• Accompanying the above improvement, the following methods on AutocompletePrediction, are now deprecated:

  • getDescription() is now deprecated. Please use getFullText(), getPrimaryText(), and/or getSecondaryText() to retrieve the full or partial description,
  • getMatchedSubstrings() is now deprecated. Please use getFullText() to format matches more easily.

• The upcoming release of Android (Android M) introduces a new model for handling permissions, which streamlines the process for users when they install and upgrade apps. Provided you're using version 8.1 or later of Google Play services, you can configure your app to target the Android M SDK and use the new permissions model. To learn more, see the documentation for the Android M Developer Preview and the changes you must make to your app for the new permissions model.

August 13, 2015

• Added support for retrieving and displaying Place Photos.

April 28, 2015

• Added a getAttributions() method on PlaceBuffer. You now need to display third-party attributions if your app uses a PlaceBuffer by calling get place by ID. See the attributions guide for details.

March 2015

This is the first release of the Google Places API for Android, included as part of the Google Play services SDK.

Features

Help your customers explore where they are and what’s around them:

• Use the built-in place picker UI widget, allowing users to select a place on an interactive map.
• Get the current place, that is, the place where the device is last known to be located.
• Retrieve and display rich information about a place.
• Make it easy to enter place names and addresses, by autocompleting your users' queries as they type.
• Add a place to Google's Places database, for retrieval immediately from within your own app and for visibility to other apps after moderation.
• Improve the map around you by reporting the presence of a device at a particular place.
• Store the unique place ID for one or more places, and use the ID to retrieve place information on demand.