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The Navigation SDK provides different ways to integrate a navigation experience into your app. This page explains what a custom navigation experience is and how it differs from other navigation experiences that are available in the Navigation SDK.
What is a custom navigation experience?
The primary way to implement the Navigation SDK is to use the Google navigation experience, which lets you embed a turn-by-turn navigation experience that uses Google-provided UI elements and visuals — similar to the navigation experience within the Google Maps apps. If you need more flexibility than the Google navigation experience offers, you can implement a custom navigation experience. A custom navigation experience refers to anything from eliminating turn guidance entirely with and running navigation only as a background process, to projecting a highly customized guidance experience to a screen separate from the device that runs the navigation. With a custom navigation experience, your app calls the Navigation SDK to request a turn-by-turn navigation feed, and then you provide and manage the UI elements and visuals that the user sees in the navigation experience. While using the Google navigation experience is generally easier to implement, building your own custom navigation experience allows for more customization.
When you create a custom navigation experience, your app calls the Navigation SDK to start, run, and stop navigation, using the following flow:
Start navigation. As with the Google navigation experience, a custom navigation experience still involves creating a navigation instance and setting the destination. However, with a customized navigation experience, you achieve this by first establishing a navigation session using GMSNavigationService.createNavigationSession, which is a state-bearing non-UI object that can operate either with a view controller, or without one.
See the demo: The download of the Navigation SDK contains a demo you can run to see an example of a navigation experience that switches between turn-by-turn guidance through standard navigation to a navigation experience that shows only the device location moving along a road polyline.
Active navigation. Here is another key difference between a Google-provided navigation experience and a custom navigation experience. Instead of handing off guidance to the built-in event manager of the Navigation SDK, you set up a listener for detailed turn-by-turn guidance by implementing the GMSNavigatorListener protocol, and then implement event handlers. This allows your experience to respond to the events described in Listen for navigation events.
End navigation. As with the Google navigation experience, custom navigation also requires you to terminate navigation in the manner best suited for the app's experience.
When might you use a custom navigation experience?
The following table describes some custom navigation scenarios.
Example scenario
High-level steps
You need to provide text-only driver guidance for small devices such as 2-wheeled vehicles.
Create your navigator and set up the turn-by-turn guidance as a data feed to a small screen device while the navigator runs on the driver's mobile phone outside of their immediate view.
You want to make your app available as a car service for drivers who use Apple Carplay.
Set up the car service.
Set up your Navigation SDK project.
Establish a navigator if you haven't already.
Set up a listener for turn-by-turn guidance.
Draw the map on the auto app surface and populate the fields from the data feed you configured.
Drivers using your app want an overview map for most of their journey, with only minimal turn-by-turn guidance for city streets.
Your app should allow drivers to enter and exit the Google navigation experience as they need, without alternating the navigator's settings for destination and trip mode.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-18 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe Navigation SDK offers a custom navigation experience for greater flexibility beyond the standard Google navigation experience.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eCustom navigation involves managing UI elements and visuals, starting navigation sessions, listening for events, and ending navigation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eCustom experiences are suitable for scenarios like text-only guidance, Carplay integration, or combining overview maps with minimal turn-by-turn guidance.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eDevelopers can access the turn-by-turn data feed and detailed navigation events to create highly customized navigation interfaces.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["The Navigation SDK provides different ways to integrate a navigation\nexperience into your app. This page explains what a custom navigation experience\nis and how it differs from other navigation experiences that are available in\nthe Navigation SDK.\n\nWhat is a custom navigation experience?\n\nThe primary way to implement the Navigation SDK is to use the [Google\nnavigation\nexperience](/maps/documentation/navigation/ios-sdk/intro-google-nav),\nwhich lets you embed a turn-by-turn navigation experience that uses\nGoogle-provided UI elements and visuals --- similar to the navigation experience\nwithin the Google Maps apps. If you need more flexibility than the Google\nnavigation experience offers, you can implement a custom navigation experience.\nA custom navigation experience refers to anything from eliminating turn guidance\nentirely with and running navigation only as a background process, to projecting\na highly customized guidance experience to a screen separate from the device\nthat runs the navigation. With a custom navigation experience, your app calls\nthe Navigation SDK to request a turn-by-turn navigation feed, and then\nyou provide and manage the UI elements and visuals that the user sees in the\nnavigation experience. While using the Google navigation experience is generally\neasier to implement, building your own custom navigation experience allows for\nmore customization.\n\nWhen you create a custom navigation experience, your app calls the Navigation\nSDK to start, run, and stop navigation, using the following flow:\n\n1. **Start navigation** . As with the Google navigation experience, a custom\n navigation experience still involves creating a navigation instance and\n setting the destination. However, with a customized navigation experience,\n you achieve this by first establishing a navigation session using\n `GMSNavigationService.createNavigationSession`, which is a state-bearing\n non-UI object that can operate either with a view controller, or without\n one.\n\n \u003cbr /\u003e\n\n For more information, see [Details about the turn-by-turn data\n feed](/maps/documentation/navigation/ios-sdk/nav-only-feed).\n\n **See the demo:** The download of the Navigation SDK contains a demo\n you can run to see an example of a navigation experience that switches\n between turn-by-turn guidance through standard navigation to a navigation\n experience that shows only the device location moving along a road\n polyline.\n2. **Active navigation** . Here is another key difference between a\n Google-provided navigation experience and a custom navigation experience.\n Instead of handing off guidance to the built-in event manager of the\n Navigation SDK, you set up a listener for detailed turn-by-turn guidance by implementing the `GMSNavigatorListener` protocol, and then implement event\n handlers. This allows your experience to respond to the events described in\n [Listen for navigation\n events](/maps/documentation/navigation/ios-sdk/events).\n\n3. **End navigation**. As with the Google navigation experience, custom\n navigation also requires you to terminate navigation in the manner best\n suited for the app's experience.\n\nWhen might you use a custom navigation experience?\n\nThe following table describes some custom navigation scenarios.\n\n| **Example scenario** | **High-level steps** |\n|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|\n| You need to provide text-only driver guidance for small devices such as 2-wheeled vehicles. | Create your navigator and set up the turn-by-turn guidance as a data feed to a small screen device while the navigator runs on the driver's mobile phone outside of their immediate view. |\n| You want to make your app available as a car service for drivers who use Apple Carplay. | 1. Set up the car service. 2. Set up your Navigation SDK project. 3. Establish a navigator if you haven't already. 4. Set up a listener for turn-by-turn guidance. 5. Draw the map on the auto app surface and populate the fields from the data feed you configured. For more information, see [Enable Navigation for Carplay](/maps/documentation/navigation/ios-sdk/carplay) |\n| Drivers using your app want an overview map for most of their journey, with only minimal turn-by-turn guidance for city streets. | Your app should allow drivers to enter and exit the Google navigation experience as they need, without alternating the navigator's settings for destination and trip mode. |"]]
