PING — Because Ping Is Not Google's Place Picker 😉

A modern, drop-in replacement for the long-deprecated Google Place Picker. Built on the Places SDK for Android (New) — searchNearby for the picker grid, programmatic autocomplete for the search bar, and a Coil-loaded photo preview in the confirmation dialog.

At a glance

• Places SDK 5.x (New) — uses SearchNearbyRequest, FindAutocompletePredictionsRequest, FetchPlaceRequest, and FetchResolvedPhotoUriRequest
• Coroutines / Flow end to end — no RxJava, no LiveData, no AsyncTask
• ActivityResultContract API — no startActivityForResult, no static result callbacks
• min SDK 24, AGP 9, Kotlin 2.3, Gradle 9.4

Install

Add JitPack to your settings:

// settings.gradle.kts
dependencyResolutionManagement {
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
        maven(url = "https://jitpack.io")
    }
}

Add the dependency:

// app/build.gradle.kts
dependencies {
    implementation("com.google.android.libraries.places:places:5.1.1")
    implementation("com.github.rtchagas:pingplacepicker:<latest-version>")
}

Setup

1. Enable APIs in Google Cloud Console on the project tied to your keys:
   • Places API (New) — required for searchNearby, findAutocompletePredictions, fetchPlace, and fetchResolvedPhotoUri
   • Maps SDK for Android — required for the map fragment
   • Maps Static API — only if you want the static map preview in the confirmation dialog
2. Add Google Play Services to your project — setup guide
3. Create API keys — sign up guide
4. Add your Places key to your manifest as com.google.android.geo.API_KEY — see the sample manifest

Usage

class MyActivity : AppCompatActivity() {

    private val placePickerLauncher = registerForActivityResult(PingPlacePicker.Contract()) { result ->
        result ?: return@registerForActivityResult
        // result.place is the Google Places SDK Place
        // result.latLng is the camera target at confirmation time
        toast("You picked ${result.place.displayName}")
    }

    private fun showPicker() {
        placePickerLauncher.launch(
            PingPlacePicker.Request(
                androidApiKey = getString(R.string.places_api_key),
                mapsApiKey = getString(R.string.maps_static_api_key), // optional
                initialLocation = null,                                // optional
            ),
        )
    }
}

That's it. The contract:

• Returns PingPlacePicker.Result? — null when the user cancels
• Throws GooglePlayServicesNotAvailableException from launch(...) if Play Services isn't available — wrap in a try/catch if you need to handle it

API keys

PING uses one or two keys depending on which features you turn on:

Key	Required?	Used for	Restriction
androidApiKey	always	Places SDK calls (nearby search, autocomplete, fetch place, photo URI)	Android-package restriction is fine
mapsApiKey	only if show_confirmation_map is true	The static-map preview rendered in the confirmation dialog (Maps Static API)	The Static API doesn't accept Android-package restrictions — use an IP or unrestricted key

Tip: don't ship a Maps Static API key inside your APK if you can avoid it — anyone can decompile and lift it. Prefer fetching it at runtime from a backend or remote config.

Configuration

Override these bools/integers in your app's resources to change behaviour:

<!-- Show the place photo in the confirmation dialog.
     Place Photo (New) — Enterprise tier, $7/1000 calls after 1000/month free -->
<bool name="show_confirmation_photo">true</bool>

<!-- Show a static-map preview in the confirmation dialog.
     Maps Static API — Essentials tier, $2/1000 calls after 10000/month free -->
<bool name="show_confirmation_map">true</bool>

<!-- Pan the map to the marker when the user taps it -->
<bool name="auto_center_on_marker_click">false</bool>

<!-- Radius in metres used for both nearby search and the autocomplete location bias -->
<integer name="autocomplete_search_bias_radius">5000</integer>

<!-- Initial zoom level applied to the map -->
<integer name="default_zoom">17</integer>

Pricing

PING uses these Places API (New) and Maps Platform SKUs. Prices below are the default pay-as-you-go rates for the first 100,000 calls per month, after the free monthly allowance is exhausted:

Action	SKU	Tier	Free / month	Price
Opening the picker	Nearby Search (New)	Pro	5,000	$32 / 1K
Tapping a search prediction	Place Details (New) — fetchPlace	Pro	5,000	$17 / 1K
Typing in the search bar	Autocomplete (New)	—	unlimited¹	$0
Confirmation photo (optional)	Place Photo (New) — fetchResolvedPhotoUri	Enterprise	1,000	$7 / 1K
Confirmation static-map preview (optional)	Maps Static API	Essentials	10,000	$2 / 1K

¹ Autocomplete keystrokes are billed under "Autocomplete Session Usage" ($0) because each session is terminated by a Place Details Pro call (fetchPlace). If the user dismisses the picker without selecting a prediction the keystrokes fall back to "Autocomplete Requests" at $2.83 / 1K (first 10,000/month free).

The tier of searchNearby and fetchPlace is driven by the field mask PING requests — ID, DISPLAY_NAME, FORMATTED_ADDRESS, LOCATION, TYPES, PHOTO_METADATAS. Adding atmosphere/enterprise fields (rating, reviews, opening hours, etc.) would bump the whole call up to the Enterprise tier.

Disable show_confirmation_photo and show_confirmation_map if you want to keep usage strictly within the Places SDK Pro tier and avoid the Static Maps key altogether.

For the full SKU breakdown and volume discounts, see the Google Maps Platform pricing page and the SKU details.

Theming

PING follows your app's Material colors. Override these in res/values/colors.xml (and res/values-night/colors.xml for dark mode):

<color name="colorPrimary">@color/material_teal500</color>
<color name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/material_teal800</color>
<color name="colorOnPrimary">@color/material_white</color>

<color name="colorSecondary">@color/material_deeporange500</color>
<color name="colorSecondaryDark">@color/material_deeporange800</color>
<color name="colorOnSecondary">@color/material_white</color>

<color name="colorBackground">@color/material_grey200</color>
<color name="colorOnBackground">@color/material_black</color>

<color name="colorSurface">@color/material_white</color>
<color name="colorOnSurface">@color/material_black</color>

<color name="textColorPrimary">@color/material_on_surface_emphasis_high_type</color>
<color name="textColorSecondary">@color/material_on_surface_emphasis_medium</color>

<color name="colorMarker">@color/material_deeporange400</color>
<color name="colorMarkerInnerIcon">@color/material_white</color>

See the sample app for a complete example.

Migrating from 3.0.1

This release is a major rewrite. Highlights of the breaking changes:

Before (≤ 3.0.1)	After
PingPlacePicker.Builder().build(activity) + startActivityForResult	registerForActivityResult(PingPlacePicker.Contract()) + launcher.launch(Request(...))
OnPlaceSelectedListener (static)	Result(place, latLng) returned via the contract
PingPlacePicker.getPlace(data) in onActivityResult	Receive Result in the registered callback
setMapsApiKey (required)	mapsApiKey (optional — only needed for the static-map preview)
setUrlSigningSecret	Removed — pass a non-URL-restricted key instead
setShouldReturnActualLatLng	Removed — result.latLng is always the camera target at confirmation
enable_nearby_search bool	Removed — searchNearby is the only path now (Places SDK New)
Place.Type enum results	String types via place.placeTypes: List<String>
Place.name / Place.address / Place.latLng getters	place.displayName / place.formattedAddress / place.location
min SDK 19	min SDK 24 (required by Places SDK 5.x)

You'll also need to enable Places API (New) in your Google Cloud project — the legacy "Places API" is not enough.

A note on enable_nearby_search and pricing

The 3.x library exposed an enable_nearby_search boolean that toggled between two backends:

• false (default) — Places SDK findCurrentPlace, $30 / 1K
• true — Places Web API /nearbysearch, $40 / 1K

Google deprecated both of these in favor of the single new SDK call searchNearby, which is what PING 4.x uses unconditionally. There's nothing left to toggle to, so the boolean is gone.

The new call costs $32 / 1K at the Pro tier with PING's default field mask — $0.002 per call more than the old default (findCurrentPlace) and $0.008 per call less than the old opt-in (/nearbysearch). If you were relying on the default cheaper path, expect a ~7 % bump in nearby-search billing; if you had enable_nearby_search=true, you'll actually pay less.

See Pricing for the full per-flow cost breakdown.

License

Copyright 2020 Rafael Chagas

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.