How well does Bing Maps API integrate with Android app?

Question

First of all, I would like to ask, CAN YOU integrate Bing Maps within an Android app? Secondly, if possible, what are the advantages Bing has over

Answer 1

I'm currently working on migrate the legacy Android SDK v1.5 to modern Android platforms, also I'm trying to port the capabilities of Android SDK 1.5 to Bing Maps SDK v8 (v1.5 uses Bing Maps SDK V7).

Please see my Github repository, the master branch is only used for compacibility of Android SDK v1.5, if you want use Bing Maps v8, check out the V8WebControl branch

https://github.com/pengan1987/BingMapsAndroidSDK

Also you can see the video shows how the SDK v8 working

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfMLfyjMTuw

Answer 2

In addition to the Open Source Bing Maps SDK you can use the Bing Maps V7 AJAX control in Android apps. This is the recommended approach as the open source app is old and designed for older versions of Android. Also it is basically just a wrapper of the AJAX control anyways. If you are using PhoneGap then take a look at these blog posts:

http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/maps/archive/2013/06/28/cross-platform-development-with-bing-maps-and-phonegap.aspx

http://www.soulsolutions.com.au/Blog/tabid/73/EntryId/797/Getting-the-shortest-route-directions-to-items-using-the-Directions-Module.aspx

http://www.soulsolutions.com.au/Blog/tabid/73/EntryId/795/Showing-GPS-position-on-Bing-Maps-with-PhoneGap-Apache-Cordova.aspx

http://www.soulsolutions.com.au/Blog/tabid/73/EntryId/794/Bing-Maps-on-IPhone-with-Phone-Gap-Apache-Cordova.aspx

Answer 3

Updates This Android SDK v1.5is now deprecated

see this link for proper use of BingMap using AJAX controller

---

Open Source Bing Maps SDK of course it's not official so there is a con right off the top, looks a bit dated but then again the google map api for android in my opinion is a bit dated, but you can work around most limitations.

Seems like both of them want to keep the really "good stuff" to themselves, built in competitive advantage for them.

As far as pro's and con's it depends on what you are trying to do. I don't think there is any perfect solution out there, Decarta which is a bit more free in it's usage restrictions than Google or Bing Decarta Dev Zone and they have a broader range of use API's in my opinion, for instance I like their POI Api vs. using places or yelp etc.