Today, we released new versions of the Maps and Places SDKs for iOS. Version 6.0 helps improve developer velocity by expanding supported iOS versions to iOS 12, and by providing preview support for XCFrameworks which contain the binaries necessary to develop on iOS 14+ simulators on Apple M1 machines. This version also adds a new developer-requested feature around how markers animate when added to the map.

Fade in marker animation

In version 6.0, we’ve introduced a new GMSMarkerAnimation type called kGMSMarkerAnimationFadeIn for animating the appearance of a marker when you add it to the map.

To use it, set the appearAnimation property of a marker before you add it to the map. 

Swift

let position = CLLocationCoordinate2D(latitude: -33.86, longitude: 151.2)
let marker = GMSMarker(position: position)
marker.appearAnimation = .fadeIn

Objective-C

CLLocationCoordinate2D position = CLLocationCoordinate2DMake(-33.86, 151.2);
GMSMarker *marker = [GMSMarker markerwithPosition:position];
marker.appearAnimation = kGMSMarkerAnimationFadeIn;

XCFramework support

Historically, the Maps and Places SDKs for iOS shipped as a single .framework file containing architectures needed for developing and releasing your app. However, with the availability of Apple M1 machines, a new variant—arm64-simulator—necessitated repackaging our SDKs into the new XCFramework format. 

If you’ve attempted to use previous versions of our SDK on Apple M1 machines, this error might be familiar to you:

ld: building for iOS Simulator, but linking in object file built for iOS, file '[...]/GoogleMaps/Frameworks/GoogleMaps.framework/GoogleMaps for architecture arm64

With the 6.0 release of the Maps and Places SDKs for iOS, we’re excited to share beta support for XCFrameworks which resolves that error on an Apple M1 machine. You can refer to our Getting Started guides for Maps and Places to learn how you can use this.

Since XCFramework versions of the Maps and Places SDKs are still in beta, we recommend you only use them for development purposes and rely on the .framework version when releasing your app. A future version of the SDKs will make XCFramework support generally available.

Install version 6.0 and check out our samples

You can now install version 6.0 of the Maps and Places SDKs for iOS through CocoaPods or Carthage. If you want to install the preview XCFramework versions of the SDKs, refer to the “Installing the XCFramework” tab. Note that developing with version 6.0 requires use of Xcode 12 or above since the minimum supported iOS version is iOS 12. Support for iOS 11 is now frozen and still available by specifying older supported versions of the Maps and Places SDKs for iOS.

For more information on Google Maps Platform, visit our website.