Text Search

A Text Search returns information about a set of places based on a string. For example, "pizza in New York", "shoe stores near Ottawa", or "123 Main Street". The service responds with a list of places matching the text string and any set location bias.

The service is especially useful for making ambiguous address queries in an automated system, and non-address components of the string may match businesses as well as addresses. Examples of ambiguous address queries are poorly-formatted addresses or requests that include non-address components, such as business names. Requests like the first two examples might return zero results unless a location (such as region, location restriction, or location bias) is set.

"10 High Street, UK" or "123 Main Street, US" Multiple "High Street"s in the UK; multiple "Main Street"s in the US. Query doesn't return desirable results unless a location restriction is set.
"Chain restaurant New York" Multiple "Chain restaurant" locations in New York; no street address or even street name.
"10 High Street, Escher UK" or "123 Main Street, Pleasanton US" Only one "High Street" in the UK city of Escher; only one "Main Street" in the US city of Pleasanton CA.
"UniqueRestaurantName New York" Only one establishment with this name in New York; no street address needed to differentiate.
"pizza restaurants in New York" This query contains its location restriction, and "pizza restaurants" is a well-defined place type. It returns multiple results.
"+1 514-670-8700"

This query contains a phone number. It returns multiple results for places associated with that phone number.

Get a list of places by text search

A Text Search request in the Places SDK for iOS (New) follows the form:

Swift

func testPlaceSearchByTextRequestGMPSRequestCreationWithProperties() {
  let placeProperties: [GMSPlaceProperty] = [GMSPlacePropertyName, GMSPlacePropertyPlaceID];
  let request = GMSPlaceSearchByTextRequest(textQuery:"pizza in New York" placeProperties:placeProperties)
  request.isOpenNow = true
  request.includedType = "restaurant"
  request.maxResultCount = 5
  request.minRating = 3.5
  request.rankPreference = .distance
  request.isStrictTypeFiltering = true
  request.priceLevels = [GMSPlacesPriceLevel.moderate.rawValue, GMSPlacesPriceLevel.cheap.rawValue]
  request.locationRestriction = GMSPlaceRectangularLocationOption(
       CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: 20, longitude: 30),
       CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: 40, longitude: 50)
  )
}

Objective-C

- (void)testPlaceSearchByTextRequestGMPSRequestCreationWithProperties {
GMSPlaceSearchByTextRequest *request =
    [[GMSPlaceSearchByTextRequest alloc] initWithTextQuery:@"pizza in New York" placeProperties:@[GMSPlacePropertyName, GMSPlacePropertyPlaceID]];
request.isOpenNow = YES;
request.includedType = @"restaurant";
request.maxResultCount = 5;
request.minRating = 3.5;
request.rankPreference = GMSPlaceSearchByTextRankPreferenceDistance;
request.isStrictTypeFiltering = YES;
request.priceLevels = @[ @(kGMSPlacesPriceLevelFree), @(kGMSPlacesPriceLevelCheap) ];
request.locationRestriction = GMSPlaceRectangularLocationOption(
    CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(20, 30), CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(40, 50));
request.locationBias = GMSPlaceCircularLocationOption(CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(20, 30), 2.0);
}

Required parameters

  • Field list

    Specify which place data properties to return. Pass a list of GMSPlace properties specifying the data fields to return. If you omit the field mask, the request will return an error.

    Field lists are a good design practice to ensure that you don't request unnecessary data, which helps to avoid unnecessary processing time and billing charges.

    Specify one or more of the following fields:

    • The following fields trigger the Text Search (ID Only) SKU:

      GMSPlacePropertyPlaceID, GMSPlacePropertyName

    • The following fields trigger the Text Search (Basic) SKU:

      GMSPlacePropertyAddressComponents, GMSPlacePropertyBusinessStatus, GMSPlacePropertyFormattedAddress, GMSPlacePropertyIconBackgroundColor, GMSPlacePropertyIconImageURL, GMSPlacePropertyCoordinate, GMSPlacePropertyPhotos, GMSPlacePropertyPlusCode, GMSPlacePropertyTypes, GMSPlacePropertyUTCOffsetMinutes, GMSPlacePropertyViewport, GMSPlacePropertyWheelchairAccessibleEntrance

    • The following fields trigger the Text Search (Advanced) SKU:

      GMSPlacePropertyCurrentOpeningHours, GMSPlacePropertySecondaryOpeningHours, GMSPlacePropertyPhoneNumber, GMSPlacePropertyPriceLevel, GMSPlacePropertyRating, GMSPlacePropertyOpeningHours, GMSPlacePropertyUserRatingsTotal, GMSPlacePropertyWebsite

    • The following fields trigger the Text Search (Preferred) SKU:

      GMSPlacePropertyCurbsidePickup, GMSPlacePropertyDelivery, GMSPlacePropertyDineIn, GMSPlacePropertyEditorialSummary, GMSPlacePropertyReservable, GMSPlacePropertyServesBeer, GMSPlacePropertyServesBreakfast, GMSPlacePropertyServesBrunch, GMSPlacePropertyServesDinner, GMSPlacePropertyServesLunch, GMSPlacePropertyServesVegetarianFood, GMSPlacePropertyServesWine, GMSPlacePropertyTakeout

  • textQuery

    The text string on which to search, for example: "restaurant", "123 Main Street", or "best place to visit in San Francisco".

Optional parameters

  • includedType

    Restricts the results to places matching the specified type defined by Table A. Only one type may be specified. For example:

    • request.includedType = "bar"
    • request.includedType = "pharmacy"

  • isOpenNow

    If true, return only those places that are open for business at the time the query is sent. If false, return all businesses regardless of open status. Places that don't specify opening hours in the Google Places database are returned if you set this parameter to false.

  • isStrictTypeFiltering

    Used with the includeType parameter. When set to true, only places that match the specified types specified by includeType are returned. When false, the default, the response can contain places that don't match the specified types.

  • locationBias

    Specifies an area to search. This location serves as a bias which means results around the specified location can be returned, including results outside the specified area.

    You can specify locationRestriction or locationBias, but not both. Think of locationRestriction as specifying the region which the results must be within, and locationBias as specifying the region that the results must be near but can be outside of the area.

    Specify the region as a rectangular Viewport or as a circle.

    • A circle is defined by center point and radius in meters. The radius must be between 0.0 and 50000.0, inclusive. The default radius is 0.0. For example:

      request.locationBias =  GMSPlaceCircularLocationOption(CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(latitude: 20, longitude: 30), radius: 2.0)

    • A rectangle is a latitude-longitude viewport, represented as two diagonally opposite low and high points. The low point marks the southwest corner of the rectangle, and the high point represents the northeast corner of the rectangle.

      A viewport is considered a closed region, meaning it includes its boundary. The latitude bounds must range between -90 to 90 degrees inclusive, and the longitude bounds must range between -180 to 180 degrees inclusive:

      • If low = high, the viewport consists of that single point.
      • If low.longitude > high.longitude, the longitude range is inverted (the viewport crosses the 180 degree longitude line).
      • If low.longitude = -180 degrees and high.longitude = 180 degrees, the viewport includes all longitudes.
      • If low.longitude = 180 degrees and high.longitude = -180 degrees, the longitude range is empty.
      • If low.latitude > high.latitude, the latitude range is empty.

  • locationRestriction

    Specifies an area to search. Results outside the specified area are not returned. Specify the region as a rectangular Viewport. See the description of locationBias for information on defining the Viewport.

    You can specify locationRestriction or locationBias, but not both. Think of locationRestriction as specifying the region which the results must be within, and locationBias as specifying the region that the results must be near but can be outside of the area.

  • maxResultCount

    Specifies the maximum number of place results to return. Must be between 1 and 20 (default) inclusive.

  • minRating

    Restricts results to only those whose average user rating is greater than or equal to this limit. Values must be between 0.0 and 5.0 (inclusive) in increments of 0.5. For example: 0, 0.5, 1.0, ... , 5.0 inclusive. Values are rounded up to the nearest 0.5. For example, a value of 0.6 eliminates all results with a rating less than 1.0.

  • priceLevels

    Restrict the search to places that are marked at certain price levels. The default is to select all price levels.

    Specify an array of one or more of values defined by PriceLevel.

    For example:

    request.priceLevels = [GMSPlacesPriceLevel.moderate.rawValue, GMSPlacesPriceLevel.cheap.rawValue]

  • rankPreference

    Specifies how the results are ranked in the response. The API uses RELEVANCE by default when applicable. For example, for a query such as "Restaurants in New York City" then RELEVANCE is the default. For geographical queries, such as "Mountain View, CA", or other type of queries then no default is applied and the results appear in the order that they are returned by the backend.

    Values include:

    • .distance: Rank results by distance.
    • .relevance: Rank results by relevance.

  • regionCode

    The region code used to format the response, specified as a two-character CLDR code value. This parameter can also have a bias effect on the search results. There is no default value.

    If the country name of the address field in the response matches the region code, the country code is omitted from address.

    Most CLDR codes are identical to ISO 3166-1 codes, with some notable exceptions. For example, the United Kingdom's ccTLD is "uk" (.co.uk) while its ISO 3166-1 code is "gb" (technically for the entity of "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"). The parameter can affect results based on applicable law.

Text Search responses

The Text Search API returns an array of matches in the form of GMSPlace objects, with one GMSPlace object per matching place.