Marker customization

  • Advanced markers on iOS are customized using GMSAdvancedMarker and GMSPinImageOptions classes to control appearance and behavior.

  • Developers can modify marker background color, border color, glyph color, and glyph text for visual customization.

  • The iconView property allows for integrating custom views and animations, similar to standard markers, but without direct layout constraint support.

  • Although GMSAdvancedMarker doesn't directly support layout constraints for iconView, developers can set constraints for elements within the iconView and define the view's frame or size.
Select platform: Android iOS JavaScript

A screenshot of different custom markers

Advanced markers uses two classes to define markers: the GMSAdvancedMarker class provides default marker capabilities, and GMSPinImageOptions contains options for further customization. This page shows you how to customize markers in the following ways:

  • Change the background color
  • Change the border color
  • Change the glyph color
  • Change the glyph text
  • Support custom views and animation with the iconView property
Parts of an advanced marker
Figure 1: The parts of an advanced marker.

Change the background color

Use the GMSPinImageOptions.backgroundColor option to change the background color of a marker.

Swift

//...

let options = GMSPinImageOptions()
options.backgroundColor = .blue

let pinImage = GMSPinImage(options: options)
advancedMarker.icon = pinImage

advancedMarker.map = mapView

Objective-C

//...

GMSPinImageOptions *options = [[GMSPinImageOptions alloc] init];
options.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];

GMSPinImage *pin = [GMSPinImage pinImageWithOptions:options];
customTextMarker.icon = pin;

customTextMarker.map = mapView;

Change the border color

Use the GMSPinImageOptions.borderColor option to change the background color of a marker.

Swift

//...

let options = GMSPinImageOptions()
options.borderColor = .blue

let pinImage = GMSPinImage(options: options)
advancedMarker.icon = pinImage

advancedMarker.map = mapView

Objective-C

//...

GMSPinImageOptions *options = [[GMSPinImageOptions alloc] init];
options.backgroundColor = [UIColor blueColor];

GMSPinImage *pin = [GMSPinImage pinImageWithOptions:options];
advancedMarker.icon = pin;

advancedMarker.map = mapView;

Change the glyph color

Use GMSPinImageGlyph.glyphColor to change the background color of a marker.

Swift

//...

let options = GMSPinImageOptions()

let glyph = GMSPinImageGlyph(glyphColor: .yellow)
options.glyph = glyph

let glyphColor = GMSPinImage(options: options)

advancedMarker.icon = glyphColor
advancedMarker.map = mapView

Objective-C

//...

GMSPinImageOptions *options = [[GMSPinImageOptions alloc] init];

options.glyph = [[GMSPinImageGlyph alloc] initWithGlyphColor:[UIColor yellowColor]];
GMSPinImage *glyphColor = [GMSPinImage pinImageWithOptions:options];

advancedMarker.icon = glyphColor;
advancedMarker.map = mapView;

Change the glyph text

Use GMSPinImageGlyph to change the glyph text of a marker.

Swift

//...

let options = GMSPinImageOptions()

let glyph = GMSPinImageGlyph(text: "ABC", textColor: .white)
options.glyph = glyph

let pinImage = GMSPinImage(options: options)

advancedMarker.icon = pinImage
advancedMarker.map = mapView

Objective-C

//...

GMSPinImageOptions *options = [[GMSPinImageOptions alloc] init];

options.glyph = [[GMSPinImageGlyph alloc] initWithText:@"ABC" textColor:[UIColor whiteColor]];
GMSPinImage *pin = [GMSPinImage pinImageWithOptions:options];

customTextMarker.icon = pin;
customTextMarker.map = mapView;

Support custom views and animation with the iconView property

Similar to GMSMarker, GMSAdvancedMarker also supports markers with an iconView. The iconView property supports animation of all animatable properties of UIView except frame and center. It does not support markers with iconViews and icons displayed on the same map.

Swift

//...

let advancedMarker = GMSAdvancedMarker(position: coordinate)
advancedMarker.iconView = customView()
advancedMarker.map = mapView

func customView() -> UIView {
// return your custom UIView.
}

Objective-C

//...

GMSAdvancedMarker *advancedMarker = [GMSAdvancedMarker markerWithPosition:kCoordinate];
advancedMarker.iconView = [self customView];
advancedMarker.map = self.mapView;

-   (UIView *)customView {
  // return custom view
}

Layout constraints

GMSAdvancedMarker does not directly support layout constraints for its iconView. However, you can set layout constraints for user interface elements within the iconView. Upon creating your view, the object frame or size should be passed to the marker.

Swift

//do not set advancedMarker.iconView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false

let advancedMarker = GMSAdvancedMarker(position: coordinate)
let customView = customView()

//set frame
customView.frame = CGRect(0, 0, width, height)

advancedMarker.iconView = customView

Objective-C

//do not set advancedMarker.iconView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = NO;

GMSAdvancedMarker *advancedMarker = [GMSAdvancedMarker markerWithPosition:kCoordinate];

CustomView *customView = [self customView];

//set frame
customView.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height);

advancedMarker.iconView = customView;