The camera

The camera is how the user views the map. It can be centered on a location, zoomed, tilted, rotated and moved. The camera can be set programmatically but also controlled through user interaction with gestures.

The camera is typically set using the CameraPosition class which is made up of target, zoom, bearing and tilt parameters.

LatLng object

double

double

double

Setting the CameraPosition

There are many ways to set the camera position on the map, but the most common method is to use the CameraPosition’s Builder. An example:

CameraPosition position = new CameraPosition.Builder()
       .target(new LatLng(40.7584766,-73.9840227))
       .zoom(13)
       .build();
map.setCameraPosition(position);

val position = CameraPosition.Builder()
     .target(LatLng(40.7584766, -73.9840227))
     .zoom(13.0)
     .build()

map!!.cameraPosition = position

The above code sets the camera’s target/center to be a coordinate in New York City and sets the zoom level to 13. Once the CameraPosition is built, the map is updated with the new position.

Animating the CameraPosition

In addition to setting the map’s camera position, you can also animate a “flight” for the new camera position information, gliding into it. The map’s animateCamera() method allows for this using a CameraUpdate object as a parameter. An example of this is below:

CameraPosition position = new CameraPosition.Builder()
       .target(new LatLng(40.7584766,-73.9840227))
       .zoom(13)
       .build();

map.animateCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newCameraPosition(position), 1000);

val position = CameraPosition.Builder()
     .target(LatLng(40.7584766, -73.9840227))
     .zoom(13.0)
     .build()

map!!.animateCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newCameraPosition(position), 1000)

Similar to the previous example, the CameraPosition is created, CameraUpdateFactory can then use this position to generate the CameraUpdate object animateCamera() requires. The second parameter is an optional duration for the animation in milliseconds.