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Each year Google holds their annual ‘Google I/O,’ a developers conference which started out back in 2006 as ‘Geo Developer Day.’ Usually held in California, 2021 marked the first ever time that the event was held virtually, with hundreds of thousands of participants gathering from all parts of the globe to hear the latest in Google Maps Platform (GMP) announcements.
This year, a raft of new features were officially announced, here we have provided you an overview of the new features and what it all means.
Tilt and rotation
Enjoy the option to tilt and rotate the map both manually and programmatically in 3D with a full 360 degrees of rotation and up to 67.5 degrees of tilt. The tilt feature introduces oblique 3D building models into a customer context, with the option for them to have access to tilt for the very first time. Real estate, travel and retail industries could benefit largely from these new features, allowing developers the opportunity to transform their user experience and translate the benefits into new industries, see here to visualise the tilt and rotation in action.
WebGL Overlay View
Web Graphics Library (WebGL) allows developers the opportunity for the rendering of 2D and 3D objects on the basemap using the WebGL feature or libraries such as three.js. This feature supports depth and occlusion of objects, significantly multiplying the Maps UX for all customers. See them in action with this Travel and Hospitality demo or the developer notes here for more details.
Cloud-based maps styling
With the introduction of cloud-based Maps styling, developers will have greater control over the look and feel of the map. This tutorial gives an in-depth demonstration as to how this new feature works. All of the new features announced are available now after beta tests last year.
For a wrap up of the whole conference, you can read this Google blog. Or for a shortcut to all of the GMP content delivered at the conference, see here. If you’d like to implement any of these new features in your business, or chat to our team about how they can benefit you, reach out to the Liveli team today.
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