Whats the difference between Google Play services location APIs and The Google Maps Geocoding API

Question

Whats the difference between Google Play services location APIs and The Google Maps Geocoding API and which API should be preferred in android to reverse geocode ?

Answer 1

The Google Maps Geocoding API you linked is pointing towards the API for Web Services, while the Location API is for Android.

So the only clear difference I can point out is the platform they are use on. Both are within the same service which is Google Maps.

For Android Reverse Geocoding (or just Geocoding), the suggested way is to simply make use of the Geocoder class (emphasis mine):

A class for handling geocoding and reverse geocoding. Geocoding is the process of transforming a street address or other description of a location into a (latitude, longitude) coordinate. Reverse geocoding is the process of transforming a (latitude, longitude) coordinate into a (partial) address. The amount of detail in a reverse geocoded location description may vary, for example one might contain the full street address of the closest building, while another might contain only a city name and postal code. The Geocoder class requires a backend service that is not included in the core android framework. The Geocoder query methods will return an empty list if there no backend service in the platform. Use the isPresent() method to determine whether a Geocoder implementation exists.

Also see these possibly helpful posts:

• Android: Reverse geocoding - getFromLocation
• How to get complete address from latitude and longitude?