About the Places API (New)

The Places API (New) includes the following APIs:

This document contains an overview of these new APIs.

Place Details (New)

A place ID uniquely identifies a place in the Google Places database and on Google Maps. With a place ID, you can request details about a particular establishment or point of interest by initiating a Place Details (New) request. A Place Details (New) request returns comprehensive information about the indicated place such as its complete address, phone number, user rating, and reviews.

There are many ways to obtain a place ID. You can use:

Place Photo (New)

The Place Photo (New) API lets you add high quality photographic content to your application by giving you access to the millions of photos stored in the Google Places database. Using the Place Photo (New) API, you can access the photos and resize the image to the optimal size for your application.

All requests to the Place Photo (New) API must include a photo resource name, which uniquely identifies the photo to return. You can obtain the photo resource name by using:

To include the photo resource name in the response from a Place Details (New), Text Search (New), or Nearby Search (New) request, make sure that you include the photos field in the field mask of the request.

Text Search (New) and Nearby Search (New)

The Places API includes two search APIs:

  • Text Search (New)

    Lets you specify a text string on which to search for a place. For example: "Spicy Vegetarian Food in Sydney, Australia" or "Fine seafood dining near Palo Alto, CA".

    You can refine the search by specifying details such as price levels, current opening status, ratings, or specific place types. You can also specify to bias the results to a specific location, or restrict the search to a specific location.

  • Nearby Search (New)

    Lets you specify a region to search along with a list of place types. Specify the region as a circle defined by the latitude and longitude coordinates of the center point and radius in meters.

    Specify one or more place types that define the characteristics of the place. For example, specify "pizza_restaurant" and "shopping_mall" to search for a pizza restaurant located in a shopping mall in the specified region.

The main difference between the two searches is that Text Search (New) lets you specify an arbitrary search string while Nearby Search (New) requires a specific area in which to search.

Autocomplete (New) and session tokens

Autocomplete (New) is a web service that returns place predictions and query predictions in response to an HTTP request. In the request, specify a text search string and geographic bounds that controls the search area.

Session tokens are user-generated strings that track Autocomplete (New) calls as sessions. Autocomplete (New) uses session tokens to group the query and selection phases of a user autocomplete search into a discrete session for billing purposes.

New fields, attributes, and accessibility options

The Places API (New) includes new fields, attributes, and accessibility options to provide users with more information about a place. These aspects are described in the following sections.

Fields

The Places API (New) includes several new fields:

Field Description
regularSecondaryOpeningHours Describes particular times for certain operations. Secondary opening hours are different from a business's main hours. For example, a restaurant can specify drive through hours or delivery hours as its secondary hours.
paymentOptions Payment options the place accepts. A place can accept more than one payment option. If payment option data is not available, the payment option field will be unset. Options include the following:
  • Credit card
  • Debit card
  • Cash only
  • NFC payment
parkingOptions Parking options provided by the place. Options include the following:
  • Free parking lots
  • Paid parking lots
  • Free street parking
  • Valet parking
  • Free garage parking
  • Paid garage parking
subDestinations Unique places that are related to a particular place. For example, airport terminals are considered sub-destinations of an airport.
fuelOptions The most recent information about fuel options available at a gas station. This information is updated regularly. Options include the following:
  • Diesel
  • Regular unleaded
  • Midgrade
  • Premium
  • SP91
  • SP91 E10
  • SP92
  • SP95 E10
  • SP98
  • SP99
  • SP100
  • LPG
  • E80
  • E85
  • Methane
  • Biodiesel
  • Truck diesel
evChargeOptions Number of electric vehicle (EV) chargers at this station. While some EV chargers have multiple connectors, each charger can only charge one vehicle at a time; as a result, this field reflects the number of available EV chargers at a given time.
shortFormattedAddress A short, human-readable address for a place.
primaryType The primary type of the given result. For example, a place may be classified as a cafe or an airport. A place can only have a single primary type. For the complete list of possible values, see Supported types.
primaryTypeDisplayName The display name of the primary type, localized to the request language if applicable. For the complete list of possible values, see Supported types.

Attributes

The Places API (New) includes several new attributes:

Attribute Description
outdoorSeating Place provides outdoor seating.
liveMusic Place provides live music.
menuForChildren Place has a children's menu.
servesCocktails Place serves cocktails.
servesDessert Place serves dessert.
servesCoffee Place serves coffee.
goodForChildren Place is good for children.
allowsDogs Place allows dogs.
restroom Place has a restroom.
goodForGroups Place accommodates groups.
goodForWatchingSports Place is suitable for watching sports.

Accessibility options

The Places API (New) includes the following accessibility option fields:

Field Description
wheelchairAccessibleParking Place offers wheelchair-accessible parking.
wheelchairAccessibleEntrance Place has a wheelchair-accessible entrance.
wheelchairAccessibleRestroom Place has a wheelchair-accessible restroom.
wheelchairAccessibleSeating Place has wheelchair-accessible seating.

Migrate to the New Places APIs

If you are an existing Places API customer and want to migrate your app to use the new APIs, see the following migration documentation: