How to use the Aerial View API

The Aerial View API supports two general workflows. Your approach depends on whether the video you're requesting exists or not. If you're unsure whether the video exists, you should use lookupVideoMetadata to determine the video's state.

Workflow to generate or retrieve videos

Use the following workflow to generate or retrieve an aerial view video:

1. Check if Google has already generated a video for the location using lookupVideoMetadata.
2. If no video exists (lookupVideoMetadata returned a 404), call renderVideo to generate a new video.
   1. Call lookupVideoMetadata using the videoId or address to poll the endpoint until the video's state is ACTIVE. Rendering can take several hours, so use exponential backoff to space out your calls.

3. If the video is active (lookupVideoMetadata returned a state of ACTIVE), call lookupVideo to fetch the video's URIs.

   Note: After Google generates the video for a specific address, that video is available to anyone. That is, a video is not associated with a specific user or account.

This workflow is represented in the diagram below:

Save video IDs for later use

Subject to the Service Specific Terms for Aerial View API, Aerial View API video IDs are exempt from the caching restrictions stated in Section 3.2.3(b)(No Caching) of the Google Maps Platform Terms of Service. You can therefore store video ID values for later use.