How to Add Custom Marker to Google Maps in Android?

Google Maps is used in many apps for displaying a location and indicating a specific location on a map. We have seen the use of maps in many apps that provides services such as Ola, Uber, and many more. In these apps, you will get to see How we can add Custom Marker to Google Maps in Android. 

What we are going to build in this article? 

We will be building a simple application in which we will display a map and on that map, we will be displaying a custom marker on our app. Below is the screenshot in which we will get to see what we are going to do in this project. we are going to implement this project in both Java and Kotlin languages. 

👁 Image

Implementation:

Step 1: Create a New Project

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. Note that select Java as the programming language. Make sure to select Maps Activity while creating a new Project.

Step 2: Generating an API key for using Google Maps

To generate the API key for Maps you may refer to How to Generate API Key for Using Google Maps in Android. After generating your API key for Google Maps. We have to add this key to our Project. For adding this key in our app navigate to the values folder > google_maps_api.xml file and at line 23 you have to add your API key in the place of YOUR_API_KEY. After adding this now we are ready for adding the custom marker to our app. After adding the API key, you can run your app and you will get to see a default marker on the Sydney location with the default marker. 

Step 3: Adding a custom marker in Google Maps

For adding a custom marker to Google Maps navigate to the app > res > drawable > Right-Click on it > New > Vector Assets and select the icon which we have to show on your Map. You can change the color according to our requirements. After creating this icon now we will move towards adding this marker to our Map. 

Step 4: Working with the MapsActivity.java file

Go to the MapsActivity.java file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the MapsActivity.java file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail.

Now run your app and see the output of the app. 

Output:

Note: In the Google Developer Console (https://accounts.google.com/v3/signin/identifier?continue=https%3A%2F%2Fconsole.cloud.google.com%2Fapis%2Fdashboard&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fconsole.cloud.google.com%2Fapis%2Fdashboard&ifkv=AdBytiNHgzNR4U8pHitF1jFfz1EZ_Vj0D0qM6mdQUsflvK9Q2eGI5xvjEza4y81MNKupFHXsAcIz5Q&osid=1&passive=1209600&service=cloudconsole&flowName=WebLiteSignIn&flowEntry=ServiceLogin&dsh=S-1895790591%3A1753258323682371), ensure that the "Google Maps Android API v2" is enabled. And also ensure that your API Key exists.

👁 Add Custom Marker to Google Maps in Android Output