Google Maps Android API v2 - detect touch on map

Question

@ape wrote an answer here on how to intercept the map clicks, but I need to intercept the touches, and then he suggested the following link in a comment of its answer, How to handle onTouch event for map in Google Map API v2?.

That solution seems to be a possible workaround, but the suggested code was incomplete. For this reason I rewrote and tested it, and now it works.

Here it is the working code:

I created the class MySupportMapFragment.java

import com.google.android.gms.maps.SupportMapFragment;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;

public class MySupportMapFragment extends SupportMapFragment {
    public View mOriginalContentView;
    public TouchableWrapper mTouchView;

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup parent, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        mOriginalContentView = super.onCreateView(inflater, parent, savedInstanceState);
        mTouchView = new TouchableWrapper(getActivity());
        mTouchView.addView(mOriginalContentView);
        return mTouchView;
    }

    @Override
    public View getView() {
        return mOriginalContentView;
    }
}

I even created the class TouchableWrapper.java:

import android.content.Context;
import android.view.MotionEvent;
import android.widget.FrameLayout;

public class TouchableWrapper extends FrameLayout {

    public TouchableWrapper(Context context) {
        super(context);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean dispatchTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) {

        switch (event.getAction()) {

            case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
                  MainActivity.mMapIsTouched = true;
                  break;

            case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
                  MainActivity.mMapIsTouched = false;
                  break;
        }
        return super.dispatchTouchEvent(event);
    }
}

In the layout I declare it this way:

<fragment xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          android:id="@+id/mapFragment"
          android:layout_width="match_parent"
          android:layout_height="wrap_content"
          android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
          android:layout_below="@+id/buttonBar"
          class="com.myFactory.myApp.MySupportMapFragment"
/>

Just for test in the main Activity I wrote only the following:

public class MainActivity extends FragmentActivity {
    public static boolean mMapIsTouched = false;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    }
}

Here is a simple solution to get the location based on user selection (click option on map):

googleMap.setOnMapClickListener(new OnMapClickListener() {
  @Override
  public void onMapClick(LatLng arg0) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    Log.d("arg0", arg0.latitude + "-" + arg0.longitude);
  }
});

This feature and many more are now supported :)

this is the developer note(Issue 4636) :

The August 2016 release introduces a set of new camera change listeners for camera motion start, ongoing, and end events. You can also see why the camera is moving, whether it's caused by user gestures, built-in API animations or developer-controlled movements. For details, see the guide to camera change events: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/android-api/events#camera-change-events

Also, see the release notes: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/android-api/releases#august_1_2016

here is a code snippet from the documentation page

public class MyCameraActivity extends FragmentActivity implements
        OnCameraMoveStartedListener,
        OnCameraMoveListener,
        OnCameraMoveCanceledListener,
        OnCameraIdleListener,
        OnMapReadyCallback {

    private GoogleMap mMap;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_my_camera);

        SupportMapFragment mapFragment =
            (SupportMapFragment) getSupportFragmentManager()
                    .findFragmentById(R.id.map);
        mapFragment.getMapAsync(this);
    }

    @Override
    public void onMapReady(GoogleMap map) {
        mMap = map;

        mMap.setOnCameraIdleListener(this);
        mMap.setOnCameraMoveStartedListener(this);
        mMap.setOnCameraMoveListener(this);
        mMap.setOnCameraMoveCanceledListener(this);

        // Show Sydney on the map.
        mMap.moveCamera(CameraUpdateFactory
                .newLatLngZoom(new LatLng(-33.87365, 151.20689), 10));
    }

    @Override
    public void onCameraMoveStarted(int reason) {

        if (reason == OnCameraMoveStartedListener.REASON_GESTURE) {
            Toast.makeText(this, "The user gestured on the map.",
                           Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        } else if (reason == OnCameraMoveStartedListener
                                .REASON_API_ANIMATION) {
            Toast.makeText(this, "The user tapped something on the map.",
                           Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        } else if (reason == OnCameraMoveStartedListener
                                .REASON_DEVELOPER_ANIMATION) {
            Toast.makeText(this, "The app moved the camera.",
                           Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onCameraMove() {
        Toast.makeText(this, "The camera is moving.",
                       Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }

    @Override
    public void onCameraMoveCanceled() {
        Toast.makeText(this, "Camera movement canceled.",
                       Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }

    @Override
    public void onCameraIdle() {
        Toast.makeText(this, "The camera has stopped moving.",
                       Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
}

I created an empty FrameLayout layered over top of the MapFragment in the layout. I then set an onTouchListener on this view so I know when the map has been touched but return false so that the touch gets passed on to the map.

<FrameLayout
    android:id="@+id/map_touch_layer"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent" />

mapTouchLayer.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
        @Override
        public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
            Utils.logDebug(TAG, "Map touched!");
            timeLastTouched = System.currentTimeMillis();
            return false; // Pass on the touch to the map or shadow layer.
        }
    });

Gaucho has a great answer, and seeing the many upvotes I figured there might be some need for another implementation:

I needed it to use a listener so I can react on the touch and do not have to check it constantly.

I put all in one class that can be used like this:

mapFragment.setNonConsumingTouchListener(new TouchSupportMapFragment.NonConsumingTouchListener() {
    @Override
    public void onTouch(MotionEvent motionEvent) {
        switch (motionEvent.getActionMasked()) {
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN:
                // map is touched
                break;
            case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP:
                // map touch ended
                break;
            default:
                break;
            // use more cases if needed, for example MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE
        }
    }
});

where the mapfragment needs to be of type TouchSupportMapFragment and in the layout xml this line is needed:

<fragment class="de.bjornson.maps.TouchSupportMapFragment"
...

Here is the class:

package de.bjornson.maps;

import android.content.Context;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.MotionEvent;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.FrameLayout;

import com.google.android.gms.maps.SupportMapFragment;

public class TouchSupportMapFragment extends SupportMapFragment {
    public View mOriginalContentView;
    public TouchableWrapper mTouchView;
    private NonConsumingTouchListener mListener;

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup parent, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        mOriginalContentView = super.onCreateView(inflater, parent, savedInstanceState);
        mTouchView = new TouchableWrapper(getActivity());
        mTouchView.addView(mOriginalContentView);
        return mTouchView;
    }

    @Override
    public View getView() {
        return mOriginalContentView;
    }

    public void setNonConsumingTouchListener(NonConsumingTouchListener listener) {
        mListener = listener;
    }

    public interface NonConsumingTouchListener {
        boolean onTouch(MotionEvent motionEvent);
    }

    public class TouchableWrapper extends FrameLayout {

        public TouchableWrapper(Context context) {
            super(context);
        }

        @Override
        public boolean dispatchTouchEvent(MotionEvent event) {
            if (mListener != null) {
                mListener.onTouch(event);
            }
            return super.dispatchTouchEvent(event);
        }
    }
}