Google Maps Platform is moving their next generation of Cloud-based maps styling into general availability. Since the Preview release, They’ve added and updated styling elements, and included new customisation features. They’ve also made improvements to the user experience that give you even more control over styling your basemap. This is in addition to previous changes like adding 100+ styleable map elements that help you style and customise your basemap, introducing features like POI density, and removing the limitation on the number of features you can customise at once.
Customise styles across zoom levels
You can now tailor the map across zoom levels to focus on the most relevant information at a particular zoom level. For instance, you can make all the map features lighter at a specific zoom level or add custom markers at another zoom level.
Across industries, customers can use this feature to deliver a better experience for their end users. A travel company can now easily highlight only the most prominent POIs around a property when the user zooms in to better understand the area surrounding the property. You can also define a style only for the highest and lowest zoom levels and zoom-level styling will pick the right style for all the zoom levels in between to ensure a smooth transition as a user zooms in or out. In the image below, you can see that the colour of the Ocean is defined as a dark shade of blue at zoom level 0 and a light shade of blue at level 22. As you zoom in, zoom-level styling enables interpolation from dark blue to light blue without having to define the shade of blue at each zoom level.
Find map features faster
You can now easily filter map features to quickly find the ones you want to customise. In Preview, the Google Maps Platform has added high-level categories to help you style similar features together. Now you can also easily expand or collapse categories to only focus on the ones you want to customise. Additionally, any changes made to the default settings in the style editor will be retained, letting you pick up where you left off across styling sessions.
Visualise more map areas to customise
Another update lets you see more of the map area you’re customising by consolidating the styleable features, element types, and styles into just two panels. This gives you more screen real-estate to visualise the results of your map customisations.
Before
AFTER: Showing simplified styling panels increase screen real-estate for maps customisations
Getting started
Now that the next generation of Cloud-based maps styling is generally available, billing will reflect a tiered pricing model. These capabilities will be available to all customers using the Dynamic Maps product.
If you’re ready to get started, get in touch with us today!
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