Google Maps caching tiles in hybrid mobile application

Question

In a hybrid web application (PhoneGap) I have been working on I have implemented the Google Maps JavaScript API v3.

The map is a large part of the application and it is important that I do everything I can to make sure performance is the best quality I can get it to for the application.

One the most noticeable problems with the map is the following:

1. Open app and load map
2. Close application and reopen application
3. Load map again

When the map is loaded again it takes the same amount of time to load as it did the first time which can be a few seconds. This seems completely unnecessary to me and bad design on my part. If these tiles have been downloaded a matter of seconds ago surely the images should be cached for a faster load the second time round?

This may well be part of PhoneGap itself as I'm sure that Google does make an effort to return cached images.

How can I improve these map load times in my PhoneGap application?

Answer 1

Please consider this plugin.

https://github.com/wf9a5m75/phonegap-googlemaps-plugin/

This plugin uses Google Maps Android API v2 and Google Maps iOS SDK. Those makes cache internally, and loading map tiles is faster than Google Maps API v3.