Current Place

Using the Google Places API for Android, you can discover the place where the device is currently located. That is, the place at the device's currently-reported location. Examples of places include local businesses, points of interest, and geographic locations.

Permissions

If your app uses PlaceDetectionApi.getCurrentPlace(), you must request the ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permission.

New permissions model in Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Android 6.0 Marshmallow 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 6.0 Marshmallow SDK and use the new permissions model.

If your app supports the new permissions model, the user does not have to grant any permissions when they install or upgrade the app. Instead, the app must request permissions when it needs them at runtime, and the system shows a dialog to the user asking for the permission.

To learn more, see the documentation for Android 6.0 Marshmallow and the changes you must make to your app for the new permissions model.

Usage limits

Use of the PlaceDetectionApi.getCurrentPlace() method is subject to tiered query limits. See the documentation on usage limits.

Get the current location

To find the local business or other place where the device is currently located, call PlaceDetectionApi.getCurrentPlace().

You can optionally specify a PlaceFilter to restrict the results to one or more place IDs (up to a maximum of 10), or to select only places that are currently open. If no filter is specified, the results are not filtered.

The API returns a PlaceLikelihoodBuffer in a PendingResult. The PlaceLikelihoodBuffer contains a list of PlaceLikelihood objects representing likely places. For each place, the result includes an indication of the likelihood that the place is the right one. The buffer may be empty, if there is no known place corresponding to the filter criteria.

You can call PlaceLikelihood.getPlace() to retrieve a Place object, and PlaceLikelihood.getLikelihood() to get the place's likelihood rating. A higher value means a greater probability that the place is the best match.

The following code sample retrieves the list of places where the device is most likely to be located, and logs the name and likelihood for each place.

PendingResult<PlaceLikelihoodBuffer> result = Places.PlaceDetectionApi
    .getCurrentPlace(mGoogleApiClient, null);
result.setResultCallback(new ResultCallback<PlaceLikelihoodBuffer>() {
  @Override
  public void onResult(PlaceLikelihoodBuffer likelyPlaces) {
    for (PlaceLikelihood placeLikelihood : likelyPlaces) {
      Log.i(TAG, String.format("Place '%s' has likelihood: %g",
          placeLikelihood.getPlace().getName(),
          placeLikelihood.getLikelihood()));
    }
    likelyPlaces.release();
  }
});

Notes about the likelihood values:

• The likelihood provides a relative probability of the place being the best match within the list of returned places for a single request. You can't compare likelihoods across different requests.
• The value of the likelihood will be between 0 and 1.0.
• The sum of the likelihoods in a given PlaceLikelihoodBuffer is always less than or equal to 1.0. Note that the sum isn't necessarily 1.0.

For example, to represent a 55% likelihood that the correct place is Place A, and a 35% likelihood that it's Place B, the PlaceLikelihoodBuffer has two members, Place A with a likelihood of 0.55 and Place B with a likelihood of 0.35.

Display attributions in your app

When your app displays information obtained from PlaceDetectionApi.getCurrentPlace(), the app must also display attributions. See the documentation on attributions.