Sean Feeney
Architect of the digital age

View KML or KMZ on Android

7 April 2011

So you want to create a custom map and view it on your Android device, maybe showing your location on it?

Create a KML or KMZ file of your map. A good service that links into Google Docs, geocodes a spreadsheet of addresses and provides you a KMZ file is MapAList. At step 5, there’s a disk icon under the map, click that to download the KMZ. Alternatively you can use Google Earth to create and save your map in either of these formats, or directly create your map via Google’s My Maps, bypassing this step all together.
Import the KMZ into Google’s My Maps. Click My Maps - Create New Map - Import. Name it and save it.
Open the native Google Maps application on your Android. Click the Layers icon (the middle icon at the top right). Click More Layers at the bottom right. Click My Maps. Select your map.

Voila. Your map, with your position (more or less accurate depending on whether you have GPS enabled at the moment).