Get Started

Before you can begin working with Google Maps on iOS, you need to download the Maps SDK for iOS and ensure that you have an API key.

Complete release notes are available for each release.

Step 1: Get the latest version of Xcode

To build a project using the Maps SDK for iOS, you need:

Step 2: Install the SDK

Use CocoaPods

The Maps SDK for iOS is available as a CocoaPods pod. CocoaPods is an open source dependency manager for Swift and Objective-C Cocoa projects.

If you don't already have the CocoaPods tool, install it on macOS by running the following command from the terminal. For details, see the CocoaPods Getting Started guide.

sudo gem install cocoapods

Create a Podfile for the Maps SDK for iOS and use it to install the API and its dependencies:

  1. If you don't have an Xcode project yet, create one now and save it to your local machine. (If you're new to iOS development, create a Single View Application.)
  2. Create a file named Podfile in your project directory. This file defines your project's dependencies.
  3. Edit the Podfile and add your dependencies. Here is an example which includes the dependencies you need for the Maps SDK for iOS and Places SDK for iOS (optional): 
    source 'https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git'
target 'YOUR_APPLICATION_TARGET_NAME_HERE' do
  pod 'GoogleMaps'
  pod 'GooglePlaces'
end
  4. Save the Podfile.

  5. Open a terminal and go to the directory containing the Podfile:

    cd <path-to-project>

  6. Run the pod install command. This will install the APIs specified in the Podfile, along with any dependencies they may have.

    pod install

  7. Close Xcode, and then open (double-click) your project's .xcworkspace file to launch Xcode. From this time onwards, you must use the .xcworkspace file to open the project.

Install manually

This guide shows how to manually add the GoogleMaps framework to your project and configure your build settings in Xcode.

  1. Download the SDK source files: GoogleMaps-3.8.2.
  2. Unpack the source files.
  3. Launch Xcode and either open an existing project, or create a new project. If you're new to iOS, create a Single View Application, and disable Use Storyboards and enable Use Automatic Reference Counting.
  4. Drag the following bundles into your project (when prompted, select Copy items if needed, please use the same version as above.):
    • GoogleMaps-x.x.x/Base/Frameworks/GoogleMapsBase.framework
    • GoogleMaps-x.x.x/Maps/Frameworks/GoogleMaps.framework
    • GoogleMaps-x.x.x/Maps/Frameworks/GoogleMapsCore.framework

    Premium Plan customers must also include GoogleMaps-x.x.x/M4B/Frameworks/GoogleMapsM4B.framework.

  5. Right-click GoogleMaps.framework in your project, and select Show In Finder.
  6. Drag the GoogleMaps.bundle from the Resources folder into your project. When prompted, ensure Copy items into destination group's folder is not selected.
  7. Select your project from the Project Navigator, and choose your application's target.
  8. Open the Build Phases tab, and within Link Binary with Libraries, add the following frameworks:
    • GoogleMapsBase.framework
    • GoogleMaps.framework
    • GoogleMapsCore.framework
    • GoogleMapsM4B.framework (Premium Plan customers only)
    • Accelerate.framework
    • CoreData.framework
    • CoreGraphics.framework
    • CoreImage.framework
    • CoreLocation.framework
    • CoreTelephony.framework
    • CoreText.framework
    • GLKit.framework
    • ImageIO.framework
    • libc++.tbd
    • libz.tbd
    • OpenGLES.framework
    • QuartzCore.framework
    • SystemConfiguration.framework
    • UIKit.framework

  9. Choose your project, rather than a specific target, and open the Build Settings tab. In the Other Linker Flags section, add -ObjC. If these settings are not visible, change the filter in the Build Settings bar from Basic to All.

  10. To install the Places SDK for iOS, see Get Started with the Places SDK for iOS.

Step 3: Get an API key

Follow the Get an API key guide to get, add, and restrict an API key.

Step 4: Add a map

The code below demonstrates how to add a simple map to an existing ViewController. If you're creating a new app, first follow the installation instructions above, and create a new Single View Application.

Now, add or update a few methods inside your app's default ViewController to create and initialize an instance of GMSMapView.

Swift

import UIKit
import GoogleMaps

class ViewController: UIViewController {

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        // Do any additional setup after loading the view.
        // Create a GMSCameraPosition that tells the map to display the
        // coordinate -33.86,151.20 at zoom level 6.
        let camera = GMSCameraPosition.camera(withLatitude: -33.86, longitude: 151.20, zoom: 6.0)
        let mapView = GMSMapView.map(withFrame: self.view.frame, camera: camera)
        self.view.addSubview(mapView)

        // Creates a marker in the center of the map.
        let marker = GMSMarker()
        marker.position = CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: -33.86, longitude: 151.20)
        marker.title = "Sydney"
        marker.snippet = "Australia"
        marker.map = mapView
  }
}
ViewController.swift

Objective-C

#import "ViewController.h"
#import <GoogleMaps/GoogleMaps.h>

@interface ViewController ()

@end

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

  GMSCameraPosition *camera = [GMSCameraPosition cameraWithLatitude:-33.86
                                                          longitude:151.20
                                                               zoom:6];
  GMSMapView *mapView = [GMSMapView mapWithFrame:self.view.frame camera:camera];
  mapView.myLocationEnabled = YES;
  [self.view addSubview:mapView];

  // Creates a marker in the center of the map.
  GMSMarker *marker = [[GMSMarker alloc] init];
  marker.position = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(-33.86, 151.20);
  marker.title = @"Sydney";
  marker.snippet = @"Australia";
  marker.map = mapView;
}

@end
ViewController.m

Run your application. You should see a map with a single marker centered over Sydney, Australia. If you see the marker, but the map is not visible, confirm that you have provided your API key.

Step 5: Declare the URL schemes used by the API

Beginning with iOS 9 and Xcode 7, apps must declare the URL schemes that they intend to open, by specifying the schemes in the app's Info.plist file. The Maps SDK for iOS opens the Google Maps mobile app when the user clicks the Google logo on the map, and your app therefore needs to declare the relevant URL schemes.

To declare the URL schemes used by the Maps SDK for iOS, add the following lines to your Info.plist:

<key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key>
<array>
    <string>googlechromes</string>
    <string>comgooglemaps</string>
</array>

The following screenshot shows the configuration in the Xcode user interface:

LSApplicationQueriesSchemes configuration in Xcode

Without the above declaration, the following errors occur when the user taps the Google logo on the map:

-canOpenURL: failed for URL: "comgooglemaps://" - error: "This app is not allowed to query for scheme comgooglemaps"
-canOpenURL: failed for URL: "googlechromes://" - error: "This app is not allowed to query for scheme googlechromes"

To eliminate these errors, add the declaration to your Info.plist as described above.

Experiment with the Google Maps SDK demo project

Try the SDK demos using one of these two methods:

Use files from GitHub

  1. Download the code sample archive from GitHub and unpack the archive.
  2. Open a terminal window, navigate to the directory where you expanded the sample files, and drill down into the GoogleMaps directory:
    cd maps-sdk-for-ios-samples-master/GoogleMaps
  3. Run the following command:
    pod install
    open GoogleMapsDemos.xcworkspace

Use CocoaPods v1.6.1

  1. Open a terminal window and install version 1.6.1: 
    sudo gem install cocoapods -v1.6.1
  2. Fetch the Google Maps files using Cocoapods: 
    pod try GoogleMaps

For more details, see the guide to code samples.

Upgrade from an earlier version

Follow these instructions to upgrade an existing project to the most recent version of the Maps SDK for iOS.

If you previously installed the Maps SDK for iOS from a zip file containing a static framework:

  1. Remove all references to the previous framework from your Xcode project.
  2. Follow the instructions in the note above to install the Maps SDK for iOS using CocoaPods.
  3. Make any necessary changes as a result of the upgrade. See the release notes for a list of the changes in each release.
  4. Clean and rebuild your project by selecting Product > Clean and then Product > Build.

If you previously installed the Maps SDK for iOS from the Google-Maps-iOS-SDK pod:

  1. Change your pod name to GoogleMaps.
  2. Run pod install.
  3. Make any necessary changes as a result of the upgrade. See the release notes for a list of the changes in each release.
  4. Clean and rebuild your project by selecting Product > Clean and then Product > Build.

If you previously installed the Maps SDK for iOS from the GoogleMaps pod:

  1. Check your Podfile for any version limiter, and ensure you remove or update the version to ensure you get the version you need. See the release notes for a list of version numbers.
  2. Run pod update.
  3. Make any necessary changes as a result of the upgrade. See the release notes for a list of the changes in each release.
  4. Clean and rebuild your project by selecting Product > Clean and then Product > Build.