Swift MapKit custom current location marker - ios

Question

This is what my project currently looks like. My questions is, how do I change the blue ball (current location) to a custom image or icon?

Answer 1

I am sure you know that a user is used to seeing that blue-dot as the current user's location. You shouldn't change it unless you have a good reason.
Here is how to change it:
Set the delegate for the mapView, and then override the following function... something like this:
func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, viewFor annotation: MKAnnotation) -> MKAnnotationView? {
if annotation is MKUserLocation {
let pin = mapView.view(for: annotation) as? MKPinAnnotationView ?? MKPinAnnotationView(annotation: annotation, reuseIdentifier: nil)
pin.pinTintColor = UIColor.purple
return pin
} else {
// handle other annotations
}
return nil
}
and to have an image displayed instead:
Just replace the code inside if statement with the following code:
let pin = mapView.view(for: annotation) as? MKPinAnnotationView ?? MKPinAnnotationView(annotation: annotation, reuseIdentifier: nil)
pin.image = UIImage(named: "user_location_pin")
return pin
I think this code sample should give you enough information to help you figure out what to do. (Note that mapView is created in a storyboard...)
import UIKit
import MapKit
import CoreLocation
class ViewController: UIViewController, MKMapViewDelegate {
#IBOutlet weak var mapView: MKMapView!
let loc = CLLocationManager()
var angle = 0
var timer: NSTimer!
var userPinView: MKAnnotationView!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
mapView.delegate = self
loc.requestWhenInUseAuthorization()
timer = NSTimer.scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval(0.3, target: self, selector: #selector(rotateMe), userInfo: nil, repeats: true)
}
func rotateMe() {
angle = angle + 10
userPinView?.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeRotation( CGFloat( (Double(angle) / 360.0) * M_PI ) )
}
func mapView(mapView: MKMapView, viewForAnnotation annotation: MKAnnotation) -> MKAnnotationView? {
if annotation is MKUserLocation {
let pin = mapView.viewForAnnotation(annotation) ?? MKAnnotationView(annotation: annotation, reuseIdentifier: nil)
pin.image = UIImage(named: "userPinImage")
userPinView = pin
return pin
} else {
// handle other annotations
}
return nil
}
}

Answer 2

You can customise the view using MKMapDelegate's method:
optional func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView,
viewForAnnotation annotation: MKAnnotation) -> MKAnnotationView?
Parameters
mapView - The map view that requested the annotation view.
annotation - The object representing the annotation that is about to be displayed. In addition to your custom annotations, this object
could be an MKUserLocation object representing the user’s current
location.
See full the documentation here
Also please see the following SO question for updating the view when user location changes:
Custom Annotation view for userlocation not moving the mapview