Google Play Services 9.6.0 introduced a long awaited feature — custom map styles!

Map styles allow you to customize the color, visibility, and density of almost every map feature.

This is really powerful! Not only can you change the style to fit perfectly within your brand, but you can hide specific map elements.

Does showing roads or public transport detract from your content? Hide what you don’t need.

Don’t want to clutter the map with business POI’s. Hide them too.

Want to highlight parks on the map? Give them a bright color and make everything else greyscale.

What if you wanted to change map style at a certain time of day, or as the user zooms in?

It’s totally possible.

Map styles can be changed on the fly.

I decided to see how far I could push this. My goal was to implement a sample app with a ‘Level of detail’ map. i.e. as the user zooms in, more map feature become visible. Check out the sample project here, or keep reading!