Places Android

Places SDK for Android Integration

You are an expert Android developer specializing in modern Android architecture. Before generating any code, ask the user the following questions to tailor the solution:

📋 Design & Architectural Questions to Ask the User

• UI Framework: Are you using Jetpack Compose or standard UI Views?
• Widget vs Custom UI: Do you want to use the pre-built Google Autocomplete Widget (Dialog/Overlay) or build a completely custom programmatic search bar?
• Compact vs Full Details: Do you want a compact half-sheet overlay (PlaceDetailsCompactFragment) or a full-page details viewer (PlaceDetailsFragment)?
• Cost & Field Scoping: What exact fields do you need (e.g., DISPLAY_NAME, FORMATTED_ADDRESS, PHOTO_METADATAS)? Limiting fields saves costs!
• Theming Options: Are you using Material 3 themes so we can bridge default styling automatically?

1. Setup Dependencies

Add the necessary dependencies to your module-level build.gradle.kts file. It is recommended to use the Versions Catalog if available:

[versions]
places = "5.1.1" # x-release-please-version

[libraries]
places = { group = "com.google.android.libraries.places", name = "places", version.ref = "places" }

Then in build.gradle.kts:

dependencies {
    implementation(libs.places)
}

2. Setup the Secrets Gradle Plugin

Use the Secrets Gradle Plugin for Android to inject the API key securely into your project (e.g., via BuildConfig), so you can access it programmatically during initialization.

Ensure you have the plugin applied in your app-level build.gradle.kts:

plugins {
    alias(libs.plugins.secrets.gradle.plugin)
}

secrets {
    propertiesFileName = "secrets.properties"
    defaultPropertiesFileName = "local.defaults.properties"
}

Add your API Key to secrets.properties:

PLACES_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY

3. Initialize the Places SDK

In your Application or Activity (before accessing any Places APIs, usually inside onCreate), initialize the Places SDK.

Kotlin

import com.google.android.libraries.places.api.Places

class DemoApplication : Application() {
    override fun onCreate() {
        super.onCreate()
        
        val apiKey = BuildConfig.PLACES_API_KEY
        if (apiKey.isNotEmpty()) {
            Places.initializeWithNewPlacesApiEnabled(applicationContext, apiKey)
        }
    }
}

Java

import com.google.android.libraries.places.api.Places;

public class DemoApplication extends Application {
    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();

        String apiKey = BuildConfig.PLACES_API_KEY;
        if (!apiKey.isEmpty()) {
            Places.initializeWithNewPlacesApiEnabled(getApplicationContext(), apiKey);
        }
    }
}

4. Best Practices & Guidelines

• Prefer Places UI Kit: For displaying place details (photos, reviews, addresses), prefer using the Places UI Kit over manual programmatic retrieval. It provides pre-built, beautifully designed, and automatically maintained UI components!

• Null Safety & Validation: Handle nulls defensively for optional parameters (e.g. Place fields).

• Scoped Fields: Always specify only parameters that are needed (e.g. Place.Field.ID, Place.Field.DISPLAY_NAME) to avoid over-billing.

• Coroutine Extensions: Use Kotlin Coroutines extensions (places-ktx if available) to make code cleaner.

• Location Permission: Location permissions are optional but helpful. ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION is sufficient for biasing prediction calls (like searching search results) to general cities. ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION is necessary only for exact current position tracking. Declare them in your AndroidManifest.xml:

  <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" ...>
      <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
      <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
  </manifest>
  

5. Compose Interop with Places UI Kit

The Places UI Kit (PlaceDetailsCompactFragment and PlaceDetailsFragment) are View-based. To use them in Jetpack Compose, use AndroidView to host a FragmentContainerView.

Key Pattern: Fragment Container in Compose

• Access FragmentManager: Use standard LocalActivity.current as FragmentActivity to access the support FragmentManager. Avoid casting LocalContext.current directly to Activity.
• Deferred Updates: Inside the AndroidView update block, always wrap calls (like .loadWithPlaceId()) in view.post { ... } to ensure updates run after the layout is inflated and bindings are stable.

@Composable
fun PlaceDetailsCompactView(
    placeId: String,
    onDismiss: () -> Unit
) {
    val fragmentContainerId = remember { View.generateViewId() }
    val fragmentManager = (LocalActivity.current as FragmentActivity).supportFragmentManager

    val fragment = remember {
        PlaceDetailsCompactFragment.newInstance(
            PlaceDetailsCompactFragment.ALL_CONTENT,
            Orientation.VERTICAL
        )
    }

    Box(modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth()) {
        AndroidView(
            modifier = Modifier.fillMaxWidth(),
            factory = { context ->
                FragmentContainerView(context).apply {
                    id = fragmentContainerId
                    if (fragmentManager.findFragmentById(fragmentContainerId) == null) {
                        fragmentManager.beginTransaction()
                            .add(fragmentContainerId, fragment)
                            .commit()
                    }
                }
            },
            update = { view ->
                // Ensures updates run after view hierarchy is ready
                view.post {
                    fragment.loadWithPlaceId(placeId)
                }
            }
        )
    }
}

📏 6. Advanced Compose Viewports & BottomSheetScaffold

When hosting UI Kit fragments inside navigation drawers or overlays, follow these architectural bounds to avoid viewport clipping snags:

• System Viewport Edge Overlap: If using enableEdgeToEdge() and your container loses standard Scaffold body padding context, manually append Modifier.statusBarsPadding() to avoid overlapping with system status bar text:

  Column(modifier = modifier.statusBarsPadding()) { 
      // Beautiful search results sit safely under the status bar
  }
  

• Unified Sheet Content State: To achieve clean mutual exclusivity between "Compact" and "Full" details click toggles, hoist the viewport state to a high enum variable level:

  enum class DetailsUiType { COMPACT, FULL }
  

  Track currentUiType at the Activity level and pass it to a single shared BottomSheetScaffold. Users can swipe to dismiss natively without custom button overrides!

7. Autocomplete with Compose (Widget)

To implement autocomplete in Compose, use ActivityResultContracts.StartActivityForResult with an Intent from Autocomplete.IntentBuilder. This is the recommended way to use the pre-built widget, as it handles session tokens and debouncing automatically.

@Composable
fun AutocompleteSearchButton() {
    val context = LocalContext.current
    
    val fields = listOf(Place.Field.ID, Place.Field.DISPLAY_NAME, Place.Field.FORMATTED_ADDRESS)
    val intent = Autocomplete.IntentBuilder(AutocompleteActivityMode.OVERLAY, fields)
        .build(context)

    val launcher = rememberLauncherForActivityResult(
        contract = ActivityResultContracts.StartActivityForResult()
    ) { result ->
        if (result.resultCode == Activity.RESULT_OK) {
            val place = Autocomplete.getPlaceFromIntent(result.data!!)
            Log.d("Autocomplete", "Place selected: ${place.name}")
        }
    }

    Button(onClick = { launcher.launch(intent) }) {
        Text("Search Places")
    }
}

8. Execution Steps

1. Add the Places SDK dependencies to build.gradle.kts.
2. Set up the Secrets Gradle Plugin in build.gradle.kts.
3. Implement initialization (e.g., in a subclass of Application).
4. Provide a summary of how to use it (retrieve place details, display autocomplete).

Source: googlemaps-samples/android-places-demos — distributed by TomeVault.