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Animating Symbols

  • This example demonstrates how to animate a symbol, specifically a circle, along a polyline on a Google Map.

  • The animation is achieved by repeatedly adjusting the symbol's offset position usingsetInterval.

  • A predefined circle symbol is used, and its appearance is customized with scale and stroke color.

  • The polyline path and initial map settings are defined within theinitMap function.

  • The sample provides both TypeScript and JavaScript code snippets for implementation.

This example adds an animated symbol to a polyline.

Read thedocumentation.

TypeScript

// This example adds an animated symbol to a polyline.functioninitMap():void{constmap=newgoogle.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map")asHTMLElement,{center:{lat:20.291,lng:153.027},zoom:6,mapTypeId:"terrain",});// Define the symbol, using one of the predefined paths ('CIRCLE')// supplied by the Google Maps JavaScript API.constlineSymbol={path:google.maps.SymbolPath.CIRCLE,scale:8,strokeColor:"#393",};// Create the polyline and add the symbol to it via the 'icons' property.constline=newgoogle.maps.Polyline({path:[{lat:22.291,lng:153.027},{lat:18.291,lng:153.027},],icons:[{icon:lineSymbol,offset:"100%",},],map:map,});animateCircle(line);}// Use the DOM setInterval() function to change the offset of the symbol// at fixed intervals.functionanimateCircle(line:google.maps.Polyline){letcount=0;window.setInterval(()=>{count=(count+1)%200;consticons=line.get("icons");icons[0].offset=count/2+"%";line.set("icons",icons);},20);}declareglobal{interfaceWindow{initMap:()=>void;}}window.initMap=initMap;
Note: Read theguide on using TypeScript and Google Maps.

JavaScript

// This example adds an animated symbol to a polyline.functioninitMap(){constmap=newgoogle.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map"),{center:{lat:20.291,lng:153.027},zoom:6,mapTypeId:"terrain",});// Define the symbol, using one of the predefined paths ('CIRCLE')// supplied by the Google Maps JavaScript API.constlineSymbol={path:google.maps.SymbolPath.CIRCLE,scale:8,strokeColor:"#393",};// Create the polyline and add the symbol to it via the 'icons' property.constline=newgoogle.maps.Polyline({path:[{lat:22.291,lng:153.027},{lat:18.291,lng:153.027},],icons:[{icon:lineSymbol,offset:"100%",},],map:map,});animateCircle(line);}// Use the DOM setInterval() function to change the offset of the symbol// at fixed intervals.functionanimateCircle(line){letcount=0;window.setInterval(()=>{count=(count+1)%200;consticons=line.get("icons");icons[0].offset=count/2+"%";line.set("icons",icons);},20);}window.initMap=initMap;
Note: The JavaScript is compiled from the TypeScript snippet.

CSS

/* * Always set the map height explicitly to define the size of the div element * that contains the map. */#map{height:100%;}/* * Optional: Makes the sample page fill the window. */html,body{height:100%;margin:0;padding:0;}

HTML

<html>  <head>    <title>Animating Symbols</title>    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./style.css" />    <script type="module" src="./index.js"></script>  </head>  <body>    <div></div>    <!--       The `defer` attribute causes the script to execute after the full HTML      document has been parsed. For non-blocking uses, avoiding race conditions,      and consistent behavior across browsers, consider loading using Promises. See      https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/load-maps-js-api      for more information.      -->    <script      src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=AIzaSyB41DRUbKWJHPxaFjMAwdrzWzbVKartNGg&callback=initMap&v=weekly"      defer    ></script>  </body></html>

Try Sample

Clone Sample

Git and Node.js are required to run this sample locally. Follow theseinstructions to install Node.js and NPM. The following commands clone, install dependencies and start the sample application.

gitclone-bsample-overlay-symbol-animatehttps://github.com/googlemaps/js-samples.gitcdjs-samplesnpminpmstart

Other samples can be tried by switching to any branch beginning withsample-SAMPLE_NAME.

gitcheckoutsample-SAMPLE_NAMEnpminpmstart

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under theCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under theApache 2.0 License. For details, see theGoogle Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2026-02-06 UTC.