Android maps: Getting map to orient in direction the phone is facing

Question

Can anyone tell me what I could use to accomplish this? I had trouble determining where the phone is facing and how to rotate the camera view of the map the reflect the change in where the phone is facing.

Answer 1

Use SensorManager.getOrientation(float[] R, float[] values) to get the compass direction of the phone. You'll have to read into the documentation for getOrientation(), it is a little complicated, I'll leave that exploration to you :)

Once, you have the heading (direction) of the phone, you can use a function like the following to rotate your map (taken from here):

public void updateCamera(float bearing) {
            CameraPosition currentPlace = new CameraPosition.Builder()
                    .target(new LatLng(centerLatitude, centerLongitude))
                    .bearing(bearing).tilt(65.5f).zoom(18f).build();
            googleMap.moveCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newCameraPosition(currentPlace));

    }

Let me know if you have any other questions!