Disable indoor view of buildings in Google Maps Street View

Question

I'm working on a project which displays a bunch of markers on Google Maps and allows the user to search and get relevant information about the locations. I haven't disabled Street View, as I'd like to give the user the possibility to see the building from the outside.

For certain locations, however, when going into Street View mode, Google Maps immediately shows the indoor of an adjacent business. What I'd like to have is the ability to completely disable indoor view on my application.

Is anyone aware of a certain setting in the Google Maps API that would do that or perhaps a clever hack to solve the issue? I haven't honestly found anything.

Answer 1

In the experimental version (currently v=3.21) there is now a StreetViewSource that can be provided in a StreetViewLocationRequest

StreetViewSource class

google.maps.StreetViewSource class

Identifiers to limit Street View searches to selected sources.

Constant
DEFAULT Uses the default sources of Street View, searches will not be limited to specific sources.
OUTDOOR Limits Street View searches to outdoor collections only.

• example of request without source: google.maps.StreetViewSource.OUTDOOR (fiddle)
• example of request with source: google.maps.StreetViewSource.OUTDOOR (fiddle)

code snippet (with source: OUTDOOR):

/*
 * Click the map to set a new location for the Street View camera.
 */

var map;
var panorama;

function initMap() {
  var myLatlng = new google.maps.LatLng(51.343364, 12.378962999999999);
  var sv = new google.maps.StreetViewService();

  panorama = new google.maps.StreetViewPanorama(document.getElementById('pano'));

  // Set up the map.
  map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById('map'), {
    center: myLatlng,
    zoom: 16,
    streetViewControl: false
  });

  // Set the initial Street View camera to the center of the map
  sv.getPanorama({
    location: myLatlng,
    radius: 50,
    source: google.maps.StreetViewSource.OUTDOOR
  }, processSVData);

  // Look for a nearby Street View panorama when the map is clicked.
  // getPanoramaByLocation will return the nearest pano when the
  // given radius is 50 meters or less.
  map.addListener('click', function(event) {
    sv.getPanorama({
      location: event.latLng,
      radius: 50
    }, processSVData);
  });
}

function processSVData(data, status) {
  if (status === google.maps.StreetViewStatus.OK) {
    var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
      position: data.location.latLng,
      map: map,
      title: data.location.description
    });

    panorama.setPano(data.location.pano);
    panorama.setPov({
      heading: 270,
      pitch: 0
    });
    panorama.setVisible(true);

    marker.addListener('click', function() {
      var markerPanoID = data.location.pano;
      // Set the Pano to use the passed panoID.
      panorama.setPano(markerPanoID);
      panorama.setPov({
        heading: 270,
        pitch: 0
      });
      panorama.setVisible(true);
    });
  } else {
    console.error('Street View data not found for this location.');
  }
}
google.maps.event.addDomListener(window, 'load', initMap);

      html,
      body {
        height: 100%;
        margin: 0;
        padding: 0;
      }
      #map {
        height: 100%;
      }

<script src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=AIzaSyCkUOdZ5y7hMm0yrcCQoCvLwzdM6M8s5qk"></script>
<div id="map" style="width: 45%; height: 100%;float:left"></div>
<div id="pano" style="width: 45%; height: 100%;float:left"></div>