Android || Get Current Google Maps Route Information

Question

Imagine a scenario where a user selects a route in the Google Maps app. They then begin following that route.

Is there a Google Maps API functionality that would allow you to get the current route information? e.g. Route Start Point, Route Finish Point, ETA, etc?

Answer 1

Short Answer: No.

Long Answer:

There isn't an official "API" per se, but there are ways to do it. Here is a Google code project, and here is a supposedly working example but the English is hard to understand.

You could always use their web API as opposed to the Android/Java API, it's known to have better flexibility when it comes to traffic, driving directions, and other features. The downside of this is that you'd have to embed it into a WebView or similar web interface.

Also, there are places to generate driving directions into KML files. Here is a great blogpost series about getting directions from OpenStreetMap, and here is the official OpenStreetMap wiki. That should be enough to get you started; you can also find more sites on Google than I could possibly link here.

Good luck!