Maps Platform
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The place picker gets a new signal from Bluetooth beacons
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
In Google Play services 7.8, the
place picker
in the
Places API for Android
will use signals from beacons in determining the device’s current location.
The Place Picker is a great UI widget for helping your users communicate where they’re located in terms they understand: places, addresses, and locations on a map. With the launch of the
Proximity Beacon API
as part of Google’s beacon platform, Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons provide a new context signal to devices. When a user’s device is near a beacon that has been registered through the
Proximity Beacon API
, the beacon’s associated PlaceID is combined with other signals available to the device. This strong signal is used to rank the suggestions presented to the user in the place picker.
If you already use the place picker in your app, you’ll get this integration for free! Just so you know, there won’t be any additional permissions required from your users since you’ll
already be requesting
ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION to run the Place Picker, which includes using BLE technology to listen for beacons. The change will only influence the place inference for users who already have their device’s Bluetooth turned on; it won’t turn on Bluetooth or prompt users with it turned off to turn it on.
If you want to deploy your own beacons, visit the
developer documentation
for a brief tutorial.
Posted by Jen Harrington, Product Manager, Google Maps APIs
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