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(); const mapElement = document.querySelector('gmp-map') as google.maps.MapElement; 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;  // Each PinElement is paired with a marker to demonstrate setting each parameter.  // Default marker with title text (no PinElement).  const markerWithText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03 },  title: 'Title text for the marker at lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03',  });  mapElement.append(markerWithText);  // Adjust the scale.  const pinScaled = new PinElement({  scale: 1.5,  });  const markerScaled = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.02 },  });  markerScaled.append(pinScaled);  mapElement.append(markerScaled);  // Change the background color.  const pinBackground = new PinElement({  background: '#FBBC04',  });  const markerBackground = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.01 },  });  markerBackground.append(pinBackground);  mapElement.append(markerBackground);  // Change the border color.  const pinBorder = new PinElement({  borderColor: '#137333',  });  const markerBorder = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.035 },  });  markerBorder.append(pinBorder);  mapElement.append(markerBorder);  // Change the glyph color.  const pinGlyph = new PinElement({  glyphColor: 'white',  });  const markerGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.025 },  });  markerGlyph.append(pinGlyph);  mapElement.append(markerGlyph);  const pinTextGlyph = new PinElement({  //@ts-ignore  glyphText: 'T',  glyphColor: 'white',  });  const markerGlyphText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.015 },  });  markerGlyphText.append(pinTextGlyph);  mapElement.append(markerGlyphText);  // Hide the glyph.  const pinNoGlyph = new PinElement({  //@ts-ignore  glyphText: '',  });  const markerNoGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.005 },  });  markerNoGlyph.append(pinNoGlyph);  mapElement.append(markerNoGlyph); } initMap();

JavaScript

const parser = new DOMParser(); const mapElement = document.querySelector('gmp-map'); async function initMap() {  // Request needed libraries.  const { Map } = await google.maps.importLibrary("maps");  const { AdvancedMarkerElement, PinElement } = await google.maps.importLibrary("marker");  // Each PinElement is paired with a marker to demonstrate setting each parameter.  // Default marker with title text (no PinElement).  const markerWithText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03 },  title: 'Title text for the marker at lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03',  });  mapElement.append(markerWithText);  // Adjust the scale.  const pinScaled = new PinElement({  scale: 1.5,  });  const markerScaled = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.02 },  });  markerScaled.append(pinScaled);  mapElement.append(markerScaled);  // Change the background color.  const pinBackground = new PinElement({  background: '#FBBC04',  });  const markerBackground = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.01 },  });  markerBackground.append(pinBackground);  mapElement.append(markerBackground);  // Change the border color.  const pinBorder = new PinElement({  borderColor: '#137333',  });  const markerBorder = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.035 },  });  markerBorder.append(pinBorder);  mapElement.append(markerBorder);  // Change the glyph color.  const pinGlyph = new PinElement({  glyphColor: 'white',  });  const markerGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.025 },  });  markerGlyph.append(pinGlyph);  mapElement.append(markerGlyph);  const pinTextGlyph = new PinElement({  //@ts-ignore  glyphText: 'T',  glyphColor: 'white',  });  const markerGlyphText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.015 },  });  markerGlyphText.append(pinTextGlyph);  mapElement.append(markerGlyphText);  // Hide the glyph.  const pinNoGlyph = new PinElement({  //@ts-ignore  glyphText: '',  });  const markerNoGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.005 },  });  markerNoGlyph.append(pinNoGlyph);  mapElement.append(markerNoGlyph); } initMap();

CSS

/*   * Always set the map height explicitly to define the size of the div element  * that contains the map.   */ gmp-map {  height: 100%; } /*   * Optional: Makes the sample page fill the window.   */ html, body {  height: 100%;  margin: 0;  padding: 0; } 

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> <!-- 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> </head> <body> <gmp-map center="37.419,-122.02" zoom="14" map-id="4504f8b37365c3d0"></gmp-map> </body> </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 myPin = new PinElement({  scale: 1.5, }); // Create a marker. const myMarker = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.4239163, lng: -122.0947209 }, }); // Append the pin to the marker. myMarker.append(myPin); // Append the marker to the map. mapElement.append(myMarker); 

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.append(pin); } 

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 markerWithText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03 },  title: 'Title text for the marker at lat: 37.419, lng: -122.03', }); mapElement.append(markerWithText);

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>

Scale the marker

To scale a marker, use the scale option.

TypeScript

// Adjust the scale. const pinScaled = new PinElement({  scale: 1.5, }); const markerScaled = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.02 }, }); markerScaled.append(pinScaled); mapElement.append(markerScaled);

JavaScript

// Adjust the scale. const pinScaled = new PinElement({  scale: 1.5, }); const markerScaled = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.02 }, }); markerScaled.append(pinScaled); mapElement.append(markerScaled);

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 markerBackground = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.419, lng: -122.01 }, }); markerBackground.append(pinBackground); mapElement.append(markerBackground);

JavaScript

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

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 markerBorder = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.035 }, }); markerBorder.append(pinBorder); mapElement.append(markerBorder);

JavaScript

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

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 markerGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.025 }, }); markerGlyph.append(pinGlyph); mapElement.append(markerGlyph);

JavaScript

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

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 markerGlyphText = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.015 }, }); markerGlyphText.append(pinTextGlyph); mapElement.append(markerGlyphText);

JavaScript

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

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 markerNoGlyph = new AdvancedMarkerElement({  position: { lat: 37.415, lng: -122.005 }, }); markerNoGlyph.append(pinNoGlyph); mapElement.append(markerNoGlyph);

JavaScript

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

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

Next steps: