Question

Google maps now offers a way to “share a place” with what appears to be a predefined list of sources. When users search for a place on Google Maps, whether it’s a specific address, cross-street, or restaurant name, there’s a new button called “share this place” that posts the location info to Google Buzz, Facebook, Twitter, or via e-mail or SMS. I would like to either have my application included in this list or determine how to obtain the lat/lon of that selected location. Does anyone have any ideas?

Answer 1

I figured it out. Here’s a sample manifest.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.yourapp" android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0">
    <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name">
        <activity android:name=".YourApp" android:label="@string/app_name">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND"></action>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
                <data android:mimeType="text/plain" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="4" />
</manifest> 

Simply add the SEND intent filter just as it is above to your activity. The “share this place” simply performs a “SEND” intent with the mime type of “text/plain”. If you register an intent filter for that type, then your app will show up in the list. Mine did. =)