I currently am planning a small, but useful, addition to Google Maps for Android. I was wondering if I could create a .apk file that, when installed, adds a feature to the stock Google Maps for Android. The only thing I have found is Google Add-on API, although I don’t think this is what I want.
If I use the above add-on API, I would be able to create a stand-alone application which fully implements Google Maps API… right? Please give me some clarity here, and let me know if I’m missing something.
The Google Add-on API is a set of classes that allow you to show google maps inside your application. Most apps use this for simply showing a map with some sort of marker on it.
The out of the box functionality is fairly limited and not nearly as feature rich as the google maps application. With enough time and effort you could possibly build a replacement for google maps but it’s not as simple as just adding on functionality.
See here for a guide on how to get started using the APIs.