Policies for Places SDK for iOS

This document lists requirements that are specific to all applications developed with the Places SDK for iOS, including the Place Autocomplete service that is part of that API. More general information for Google Maps developers may be found in the Google Maps Platform Terms of Service.

Policies

This section describes policies relevant to Places SDK for iOS. Policies provide practical implementation guidelines and requirements to help you use the Service correctly and in line with Google Maps Platform's expectations.

Exceptions from caching restrictions

Note that the place ID, used to uniquely identify a place, is exempt from the caching restrictions. You can therefore store place ID values indefinitely. The place ID is returned in the place_id field in API responses. Learn how to save, refresh, and manage place IDs in the Place IDs guide.

European Economic Area countries and territories

This product has different Terms of Service for customers with a billing address in the European Economic Area (EEA), and it may also have different functionality. Before building with Google Maps Platform, review the following EEA-specific terms and information:

• Google Maps Platform EEA Terms of Service
• Google Maps Platform EEA Service Specific Terms
• EEA frequently asked questions (FAQ)
• Google Maps Platform Road Safety Requirements

If your billing address is not in the EEA, the following terms of service apply to you:

• Google Maps Platform Terms of Service
• Google Maps Platform Service Specific Terms

Google Maps attribution requirements

This section provides attribution requirements and guidelines for displaying Google Maps and Content through your applications.

Attribution example

Following is an attribution example for Places UI Kit.

Display Google Maps attribution

You must follow Google Maps attribution requirements when displaying Content from Google Maps Platform APIs in your app or website. You don't need to add extra attribution if the Content is shown on a Google Map where the attribution is already visible.

Included Google Maps attribution

For Google Maps attribution that is already provided by Google Maps Platform in the user interface, such as in Places UI Kit:

• Don't remove included attribution regardless of where it is displayed. Don't alter, hide, or obscure the attribution and make sure it is clearly visible against the background.
• Always visually distinguish Google Maps Platform Content from other content by using UI cues such as a border, background color, shadow, or sufficient whitespace.
• When making visual modifications, you must adhere to all Google Maps attribution requirements.

Google Maps logo and text attribution

Attribution should take the form of the Google Maps logo whenever possible. In cases where space is limited, the text Google Maps is acceptable. It must always be clear to end users which content is provided by Google Maps.

Logo attribution

Download Google Maps logos

Use the official Google Maps logo files. Download the logos below, and follow the guidelines in this section.

When using the Google Maps logo, follow these guidelines.

• Don't modify the logo in any way.
• Maintain the aspect ratio of the logo to prevent distortion.
• Use the outlined logo on a busy background, like a map or image.
• Use the non-outlined logo on a plain background, like a solid color or subtle gradient.

Logo size specification

• Minimum logo height: 16dp
• Maximum logo height: 19dp
• Minimum logo clear space: 10dp on left, right and top, 5dp on the bottom

To learn about dp, see Pixel density on the Material Design website.

Logo accessibility

• Maintain an accessible contrast between the logo and the background.
• Include an accessibility label with the text Google Maps.

Text attribution

If the size of your interface does not support using the Google Maps logo, you can spell out Google Maps in text. Follow these guidelines:

• Don't modify the text Google Maps in any way:
  
  • Don't change the capitalization of Google Maps
  • Don't wrap Google Maps onto multiple lines
  • Don't localize Google Maps into another language.
  • Prevent browsers from translating Google Maps by using the HTML attribute translate="no".

• Style Google Maps text as described in the following table:

  Google Maps text-styling requirements
  Property	Style
  Font family	Roboto. Loading the font is optional.
  Fallback font family	Any sans serif body font already used in your product or "Sans-Serif" to invoke the default system font
  Font style	Normal
  Font weight	400
  Font color	White, black (#1F1F1F), or gray (#5E5E5E). Maintain accessible (4.5:1) contrast against the background.
  Font size	Minimum font size: 12sp Maximum font size: 16sp To learn about sp, see Font size units on the Material Design website.
  Letter spacing	Normal

Example CSS

The following CSS renders Google Maps with the appropriate typographic style and color on a white or light background.

@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Roboto&display=swap');
.GMP-attribution {
font-family: Roboto, Sans-Serif;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 400;
font-size: 1rem;
letter-spacing: normal;
white-space: nowrap;
color: #5e5e5e;
}

Visual requirements

• Position attribution near the top or bottom of the content, and within the same visual container. For a single line of content, attribution can be positioned to the right or left.

• Visually distinguish Google Maps Platform Content from other content by using UI cues such as a border, background color, shadow, or sufficient whitespace.

• Don't misrepresent Google Maps by attributing it with non-Google Maps Platform content.
• Verify that the attribution is always visible and legible. Never remove, hide, obscure, or modify it.

The following figures show examples of these visual requirements.

Third-party data providers

Some of the data and images on our mapping products come from providers other than Google. For some products, such as Map Tiles API, we may provide you with the required attribution to the third-party data provider. When we do, the text of your attribution must say the name "Google Maps" and the relevant data provider(s), such as "Map data: Google, Maxar Technologies." When Google provides third-party attribution, only including "Google Maps" or the Google logo is not proper attribution.

Other attribution requirements

Attributions to third-party providers contain content and links that you must display to the user in the format in which they are provided. Google recommends that your app shows this information below the place details.

The third-party attributions returned by the API do not include the Google attribution. You must include this attribution yourself, as described in Displaying the Google logo and attributions.

Follow these instructions to retrieve third-party attributions for a single place or a collection of places.

Retrieve attributions for a single place

When you retrieve a place by getting a place by ID, you can retrieve the attributions for that place from the attributions property on GMSPlace.

The attributions are provided as an NSAttributedString object.

Retrieve attributions for a collection of places

If your app displays information obtained by requesting the device's current place, the app must display third-party attributions for the place details displayed. You can retrieve the attributions for all the places retrieved in the request, from the attributions property on GMSPlaceLikelihoodList.

The attributions are provided as a NSAttributedString object, which you can access and display in the same way as the attributions on a single place, as described above.

Search results attributions

In Europe, when using Google's unadulterated ranking, search products must have explainer text no more than 1 click away that describes the main factors and the weighting of the main factors that determine search results ranking. Explainer text:

Header: About these results

Body: When you search for businesses or places near a location, Google Maps will show you local results. Several factors — primarily relevance, distance and prominence — are combined to help find the best results for your search.

Button 1: Learn more
"Learn more" text should link to a Help Center article.

Button 2: OK

Display attributions for a photo

If your app displays photos, you must show any attributions and authorAttributions for each photo that has them.

• To access any attributions, use GMSPlacePhotoMetadata.attributions. This property is a NSAttributedString, or nil if there are no attributions to display.
• To access any author attributions, use GMSPlacePhotoMetadata.authorAttributions. This property contains an array of GMSPlaceAuthorAttribution objects.

GMSPlacesClient.sharedClient().lookUpPhotosForPlaceID(placeID) { (photos, error) -> Void in
  if let error = error {
    // TODO: handle the error.
    print("Error: \(error.description)")
  } else {
    // Get attribution for the first photo in the list.
    if let photo = photos?.results.first {
      let attributions = photo.attributions
    }
  }
}
    

[[GMSPlacesClient sharedClient]
    lookUpPhotosForPlaceID:placeID
      callback:^(GMSPlacePhotoMetadataList *_Nullable photos,
                  NSError *_Nullable error) {
        if (error) {
          // TODO: handle the error.
          NSLog(@"Error: %@", [error description]);
        } else {
          // Get attribution for the first photo in the list.
          if (photos.results.count > 0) {
            GMSPlacePhotoMetadata *photo = photos.results.firstObject;
            NSAttributedString *attributions = photo.attributions;
          }
        }
      }];
    

Display a review

A GMSPlace object can contain up to five reviews, where each review is represented by a GMSPlaceReview object. You can optionally display these reviews in your app.

When displaying reviews contributed by Google users, you must place the author's name in close proximity. When available in the author attribution field of the GMSPlaceReview object, we recommend you include the author's photo and link to their profile as well. The following image shows an example of a review of a park:

Google also recommends that you display how reviews are being sorted to the end user.

To access the reviews:

// Define a Place ID.
let placeID = "ChIJV4k8_9UodTERU5KXbkYpSYs"
// Specify the place data types to return.
let myProperties: [GMSPlaceProperty] = [.name, .website, .reviews]
// Create the GMSFetchPlaceRequest object.
let fetchPlaceRequest = GMSFetchPlaceRequest(placeID: placeID, placeProperties: myProperties)
client.fetchPlaceWithRequest(fetchPlaceRequest: fetchPlaceRequest, callback: {
  (place: GMSPlace?, error: Error?) in
  if let error = error {
    print("An error occurred: \(error.localizedDescription)")
    return
  }
  if let place = place {
    let firstReview: GMSPlaceReview = place.reviews![0]
    // Use firstReview to access review text, authorAttribution, and other fields.
  }
})

// Define a Place ID.
NSString *placeID = @"ChIJV4k8_9UodTERU5KXbkYpSYs";
// Specify the place data types to return, including reviews.
NSArray<GMSPlaceProperty *> *myProperties = @[GMSPlacePropertyName, GMSPlacePropertyWebsite,GMSPlacePropertyReviews];
GMSFetchPlaceRequest *fetchPlaceRequest = [[GMSFetchPlaceRequest alloc] initWithPlaceID:placeID placeProperties: myProperties];
[placesClient fetchPlaceWithRequest: fetchPlaceRequest, callback: ^(GMSPlace *_Nullable place, NSError *_Nullable error) {
  if (error) {
    // TODO: handle the error.
    NSLog(@"Error: %@", [error description]);
  } else {
    // Get first review.
    GMSPlaceReview *firstReview = [place reviews][0];
    // Use firstReview to access review text, authorAttribution, and other fields.
  }
}];

Display third-party attributions

Attributions to third-party providers are provided as NSAttributedString objects that contain content and links that you must preserve and display to the user.

The recommended way to display the attributions is with a UITextView, because links in the attributions must work. To ensure links work, set a delegate on the UITextView and set the shouldInteractWithURL method of your UITextViewDelegate to return YES.

...
  self.attributionTextView.delegate = self
...
// MARK: - UITextViewDelegate
func textView(textView: UITextView, shouldInteractWithURL URL: NSURL,
  inRange characterRange: NSRange) -> Bool {
  // Make links clickable.
  return true
}
    

...
  self.attributionTextView.delegate = self;
...
#pragma mark - UITextViewDelegate
- (BOOL)textView:(UITextView *)textView
    shouldInteractWithURL:(NSURL *)url
                  inRange:(NSRange)characterRange {
  // Make links clickable.
  return YES;
}
    

Example of a third-party attribution

A third-party attribution typically consists of text with a link. For example:

Listings by Example Company

In the above example, the Example Company text range is covered by an NSLink attribute.

Autocomplete for end user addresses

When an end user uses Autocomplete functionality within your Customer Application to type ahead a street address and that street address would have been completely and accurately provided by that end user without Autocomplete, the end user's selected address is then not subject to the Google Maps Content restrictions in your Google Maps Platform Agreement. This exception applies only to the street address selected by the end user and solely for that end user's specific transaction; it does not apply to the list of suggested addresses provided by the Autocomplete functionality or to other Google Maps Content. This exception does not apply to any POI or address lookup functionality offered by other Google Maps Platform Services.

In the previous image, the address list on the left is still subject to the restrictions on Google Maps Content. Once the end user selects their chosen address, that address is not subject to the restrictions on Google Maps Content solely for the purpose of that end user's applicable transaction.