Basic marker customization

  • This guide demonstrates how to customize advanced markers on Google Maps using the AdvancedMarkerElement and PinElement classes.

  • You can customize markers by adding title text, scaling, changing background and border colors, and modifying the glyph (including color, text, and visibility).

  • The AdvancedMarkerElement defines basic marker properties, while the PinElement provides advanced styling options.

  • Code examples are provided in TypeScript and JavaScript to illustrate marker customization techniques.

  • This guide is platform-specific and offers resources for Android, iOS, and JavaScript development.
Select platform: Android iOS JavaScript

See the complete example source code

This example shows how to customize markers in the following ways: add title text, scale the marker, change the background color, change the border color, change the glyph color, hide the glyph.

TypeScript

const parser = new DOMParser();

async function initMap() {
    // Request needed libraries.
    const { Map } = await google.maps.importLibrary("maps") as google.maps.MapsLibrary;
    const { AdvancedMarkerElement, PinElement } = await google.maps.importLibrary("marker") as google.maps.MarkerLibrary;

    const map = new Map(document.getElementById('map') as HTMLElement, {
        center: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.02 },
        zoom: 14,
        mapId: '4504f8b37365c3d0',
    });

    // Each PinElement is paired with a MarkerView to demonstrate setting each parameter.

    // Default marker with title text (no PinElement).
    const markerViewWithText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03 },
        title: 'Title text for the marker at lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03',
    });

    // Adjust the scale.
    const pinScaled = new PinElement({
        scale: 1.5,
    });
    const markerViewScaled = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.02 },
        content: pinScaled.element,
    });

    // Change the background color.
    const pinBackground = new PinElement({
        background: '#FBBC04',
    });
    const markerViewBackground = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.01 },
        content: pinBackground.element,
    });

    // Change the border color.
    const pinBorder = new PinElement({
        borderColor: '#137333',
    });
    const markerViewBorder = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.035 },
        content: pinBorder.element,
    });

    // Change the glyph color.
    const pinGlyph = new PinElement({
        glyphColor: 'white',
    });
    const markerViewGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.025 },
        content: pinGlyph.element,
    });

    const pinTextGlyph = new PinElement({
        //@ts-ignore
        glyphText: 'T',
        glyphColor: 'white',
    });
    const markerViewGlyphText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.015 },
        content: pinTextGlyph.element,
    });

    // Hide the glyph.
    const pinNoGlyph = new PinElement({
        //@ts-ignore
        glyphText: '',
    });
    const markerViewNoGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.005 },
        content: pinNoGlyph.element,
    });

}

initMap();
index.ts

JavaScript

const parser = new DOMParser();
async function initMap() {
    // Request needed libraries.
    const { Map } = await google.maps.importLibrary("maps");
    const { AdvancedMarkerElement, PinElement } = await google.maps.importLibrary("marker");
    const map = new Map(document.getElementById('map'), {
        center: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.02 },
        zoom: 14,
        mapId: '4504f8b37365c3d0',
    });
    // Each PinElement is paired with a MarkerView to demonstrate setting each parameter.
    // Default marker with title text (no PinElement).
    const markerViewWithText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03 },
        title: 'Title text for the marker at lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03',
    });
    // Adjust the scale.
    const pinScaled = new PinElement({
        scale: 1.5,
    });
    const markerViewScaled = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.02 },
        content: pinScaled.element,
    });
    // Change the background color.
    const pinBackground = new PinElement({
        background: '#FBBC04',
    });
    const markerViewBackground = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.01 },
        content: pinBackground.element,
    });
    // Change the border color.
    const pinBorder = new PinElement({
        borderColor: '#137333',
    });
    const markerViewBorder = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.035 },
        content: pinBorder.element,
    });
    // Change the glyph color.
    const pinGlyph = new PinElement({
        glyphColor: 'white',
    });
    const markerViewGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.025 },
        content: pinGlyph.element,
    });
    const pinTextGlyph = new PinElement({
        //@ts-ignore
        glyphText: 'T',
        glyphColor: 'white',
    });
    const markerViewGlyphText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.015 },
        content: pinTextGlyph.element,
    });
    // Hide the glyph.
    const pinNoGlyph = new PinElement({
        //@ts-ignore
        glyphText: '',
    });
    const markerViewNoGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
        map,
        position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.005 },
        content: pinNoGlyph.element,
    });
}
initMap();
index.js

CSS

/* 
 * Always set the map height explicitly to define the size of the div element
 * that contains the map. 
 */
#map {
  height: 100%;
}

/* 
 * Optional: Makes the sample page fill the window. 
 */
html,
body {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

style.css

HTML

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Advanced Marker Basic Customization</title>

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./style.css" />
    <script type="module" src="./index.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="map"></div>

    <!-- prettier-ignore -->
    <script>(g=>{var h,a,k,p="The Google Maps JavaScript API",c="google",l="importLibrary",q="__ib__",m=document,b=window;b=b[c]||(b[c]={});var d=b.maps||(b.maps={}),r=new Set,e=new URLSearchParams,u=()=>h||(h=new Promise(async(f,n)=>{await (a=m.createElement("script"));e.set("libraries",[...r]+"");for(k in g)e.set(k.replace(/[A-Z]/g,t=>"_"+t[0].toLowerCase()),g[k]);e.set("callback",c+".maps."+q);a.src=`https://maps.${c}apis.com/maps/api/js?`+e;d[q]=f;a.onerror=()=>h=n(Error(p+" could not load."));a.nonce=m.querySelector("script[nonce]")?.nonce||"";m.head.append(a)}));d[l]?console.warn(p+" only loads once. Ignoring:",g):d[l]=(f,...n)=>r.add(f)&&u().then(()=>d[l](f,...n))})
        ({key: "AIzaSyA6myHzS10YXdcazAFalmXvDkrYCp5cLc8", v: "weekly"});</script>
  </body>
</html>
index.html

Try Sample

This page shows you how to customize markers in the following ways:

The parts of an Advanced Marker.
Figure 1: The parts of an Advanced Marker.

Advanced markers uses two classes to define markers: the AdvancedMarkerElement class provides the basic parameters (position, title, and map), and the PinElement class contains options for further customization.

In order to add markers to a map, you must first load the marker library which provides the AdvancedMarkerElement and PinElement classes.

The following snippet shows code to create a new PinElement, then apply it to a marker.

// Create a pin element.
const pin = new PinElement({
    scale: 1.5,
});
// Create a marker and apply the element.
const marker = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.02 },
    content: pin.element,
});

In maps created using custom HTML elements, the basic parameters for a marker are declared using the gmp-advanced-marker HTML element; any customization that uses the PinElement class must be applied programmatically. To do this, your code must retrieve the gmp-advanced-marker elements from the HTML page. The following snippet shows code to query for a collection of gmp-advanced-marker elements, then iterate through the results to apply customization that was declared in the PinElement.

// Return an array of markers.
const advancedMarkers = [...document.querySelectorAll('gmp-advanced-marker')];

// Loop through the markers
for (let i = 0; i < advancedMarkers.length; i++) {
  const pin = new PinElement({
      scale: 2.0,
  });

  marker.appendChild(pin.element);
}

Add title text

Title text appears when the cursor hovers over a marker. Title text is readable by screen readers.

To add title text programmatically, use the AdvancedMarkerElement.title option:

// Default marker with title text (no PinElement).
const markerViewWithText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03 },
    title: 'Title text for the marker at lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03',
});
index.js

To add title text to a marker created using custom HTML elements, use the title attribute:

<gmp-map
  center="43.4142989,-124.2301242"
  zoom="4"
  map-id="DEMO_MAP_ID"
  style="height: 400px"
>
  <gmp-advanced-marker
    position="37.4220656,-122.0840897"
    title="Mountain View, CA"
  ></gmp-advanced-marker>
  <gmp-advanced-marker
    position="47.648994,-122.3503845"
    title="Seattle, WA"
  ></gmp-advanced-marker>
</gmp-map>
index.html

Scale the marker

To scale a marker, use the scale option.

TypeScript

// Adjust the scale.
const pinScaled = new PinElement({
    scale: 1.5,
});
const markerViewScaled = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.02 },
    content: pinScaled.element,
});
index.ts

JavaScript

// Adjust the scale.
const pinScaled = new PinElement({
    scale: 1.5,
});
const markerViewScaled = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.02 },
    content: pinScaled.element,
});
index.js

Change the background color

Use the PinElement.background option to change the background color of a marker:

TypeScript

// Change the background color.
const pinBackground = new PinElement({
    background: '#FBBC04',
});
const markerViewBackground = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.01 },
    content: pinBackground.element,
});
index.ts

JavaScript

// Change the background color.
const pinBackground = new PinElement({
    background: '#FBBC04',
});
const markerViewBackground = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.01 },
    content: pinBackground.element,
});
index.js

Change the border color

Use the PinElement.borderColor option to change the border color of a marker:

TypeScript

// Change the border color.
const pinBorder = new PinElement({
    borderColor: '#137333',
});
const markerViewBorder = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.035 },
    content: pinBorder.element,
});
index.ts

JavaScript

// Change the border color.
const pinBorder = new PinElement({
    borderColor: '#137333',
});
const markerViewBorder = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.035 },
    content: pinBorder.element,
});
index.js

Change the glyph color

Use the PinElement.glyphColor option to change the glyph color of a marker:

TypeScript

// Change the glyph color.
const pinGlyph = new PinElement({
    glyphColor: 'white',
});
const markerViewGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.025 },
    content: pinGlyph.element,
});
index.ts

JavaScript

// Change the glyph color.
const pinGlyph = new PinElement({
    glyphColor: 'white',
});
const markerViewGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.025 },
    content: pinGlyph.element,
});
index.js

Use text in a glyph

Use the PinElement.glyphText option to replace the default glyph with a text character. The text glyph of the PinElement scales with the PinElement and its default color matches the default glyphColor of the PinElement.

TypeScript

const pinTextGlyph = new PinElement({
    //@ts-ignore
    glyphText: 'T',
    glyphColor: 'white',
});
const markerViewGlyphText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.015 },
    content: pinTextGlyph.element,
});
index.ts

JavaScript

const pinTextGlyph = new PinElement({
    //@ts-ignore
    glyphText: 'T',
    glyphColor: 'white',
});
const markerViewGlyphText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.015 },
    content: pinTextGlyph.element,
});
index.js

Hide the glyph

Set the PinElement.glyphText option to an empty string to hide a marker's glyph:

TypeScript

// Hide the glyph.
const pinNoGlyph = new PinElement({
    //@ts-ignore
    glyphText: '',
});
const markerViewNoGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.005 },
    content: pinNoGlyph.element,
});
index.ts

JavaScript

// Hide the glyph.
const pinNoGlyph = new PinElement({
    //@ts-ignore
    glyphText: '',
});
const markerViewNoGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({
    map,
    position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.005 },
    content: pinNoGlyph.element,
});
index.js

Alternatively, set PinElement.glyphColor to the same value as PinElement.background. This has the effect of visually hiding the glyph.

Next steps: