Maps Sans Play Services

One of the bigger reasons why developers depend upon Google Play
Services is for MapsV2, the native Android mapping engine. Lots of
developers are comfortable with just implementing MapsV2, on the grounds
that most Android devices are part of the Google Play ecosystem and
therefore can use MapsV2.

This, of course, makes manufacturers outside the Play ecosystem sad.

Some of those manufacturers have elected to provide their own mapping
solution. Amazon, for example, offers maps with an API that is very
similar to MapsV1 (the old API) and MapsV2. However, this still requires
developers to code to these distinct APIs, perhaps employing product
flavors in Android Studio and Gradle for Android to isolate the ecosystem-specific
code bits. After all, Amazon’s maps only work on Amazon hardware, so you
still need something that can work elsewhere.

One way to try to deal with this is to use a compatibility layer.
Airbnb went down this road, and last week they released
AirMapView based on their work.

AirMapView is designed to give you a map, regardless of the device that
you are running on. It tries MapsV2 and falls back to maps powered
by WebView and the Web edition of Google Maps. Airbnb indicates that
support for Amazon’s mapping engine is forthcoming. I hope that somebody
contributes an OpenStreetMap extension for it as well. And, they too offer
an API that is close to MapsV2. If it works as advertised, you can get
the best possible map for a given device, without constraining yourself
to only devices that offer MapsV2.

The 1.1.2 AAR for AirMapView clocks in at ~100KB, so it will not grow
your APK too much. AirMapView is definitely a project to keep
track of, and to evaluate when it makes sense for your team. Having
the ability to support non-Play devices may prove important to you in
the long run. Anything you can do to isolate the Play-specific code
and have options for replacing it would be good, all else being equal.