Microsoft’s Azure Maps now has an Android SDK

Google competes with Microsoft in a number of different fields. While the Seattle-based tech company doesn’t have a mobile OS in the works anymore, they still go head to head against Google in areas such as web search, online maps, cloud computing, AI, programming languages, operating systems, and more. Since Microsoft has dropped its goal of competing in the mobile phone space the company has brought a number of its services to iOS and Android. The latest announcement from the company tells us that mobile developers now have access to an Android SDK for their Azure Maps service.

There is a lot of new details and features that were revealed in this announcement, but mobile developers are likely more interested in the Android SDK than anything else right now. Released in a preview state as of right now, the Azure Maps Android SDK comes with rendering maps and traffic (as you would expect these days), but it also comes with drawing tools, event handling, and a variety of map canvases. The Azure Maps SDK also comes with other modern maps features that you would expect, including search and routing.

There are also a number of new features readily available for those who are already familiar with the Azure Maps feature. Some of these are only made available in a preview state so be aware of things not being fully fleshed out as of right now. However, features including Geofencing, Azure Active Directory integration, the Azure Web Maps SDK 2.0, a shaded relief map style, and image composition are all now available to developers. Since a lot of this is new and available in preview forms, the company is encouraging comments at the source link below and directing questions to either Stack Overflow or their Azure Maps Feedback Forums.