Why & when to use Static Maps
Tags: Maps, Product

Why & when to use Static Maps

By: Bersabel Tadesse

Mapbox Static Maps are a collection of REST APIs and client libraries for generating images of Mapbox Studio styles. Static Maps are the simplest way to show a map on a website or mobile application because they don’t require a mapping library or SDK and can be displayed anywhere images can, including in applications or UIs where interactive maps can’t be integrated.

Developers use Static Maps to create maps with just a few lines of code and oftentimes a single HTML image tag. Static Maps are also fast. Across different use cases and regions, average load times for Static Maps are between 100–425 milliseconds depending on whether the image is already cached.

Customers like Strava, Snapchat, Lyft, Yahoo! Japan, Shopify and others use Static Maps to decrease load times and drive engagement for their users.

Universal support across any browser, platform or medium

Static Maps are rendered as images, enabling cross-browser and cross-platform support, including in legacy browsers that don’t support OpenGL — the rendering technology used by most web and mobile map renderers — as well as more traditional media like printed news.

With Static Maps, data journalists like Buzzfeed can write stories that feature maps for news articles on the web and in print.‍

Yahoo! Japan uses the universal platform support of Static Maps to deliver a consistent web experience to their user base regardless of the browser they use. They created one map style in Mapbox Studio that they are able to serve to their entire web user base with both GL JS for those whose browsers support it, and for those whose browsers don’t, they fallback to using Static Maps. Because GL JS and Static Maps use the same map rendering logic, this means Yahoo! Japan’s users get a consistent map experience. Checkout this guide for how to build the same experience.

Fitness & Social Media Feeds

Because Static Maps are fast and lightweight, they’re perfect for use cases where improved performance directly drives engagement.

Strava uses Static Maps to display a dynamic activity feed with route maps that show users detailed summaries of their runs, bikes, and other activities. These maps provide users with contextual information that encourages others to engage and get active themselves.

Snap uses Static Maps in users’ profile pages to provide users with a quick snapshot of where their friends are on a map. These maps are hyperlinked to drive interaction — users can tap the map image to directly message and interact with their friends.

Online Receipts & Logistics

Static Maps save developers time, without sacrificing on features or flexibility. Shopify uses Static Maps alongside interactive maps in their package tracking app Shop to always give their users a fast and accurate picture of where their packages are and where they’re going. They use Static Maps in a feed to show users where their packages currently are and also provide the option to expand the static maps into a larger interactive map for tracking the full journey of a package.

Customers like Lyft and Square use Static Maps to augment online receipts, which build trust with their users by giving them an accurate overview of where their purchase took place.‍

Improved Perceived Web Performance

Developers can also use the fast load times of Static Maps to improve the perceived performance of their GL web maps. Perceived performance is an indication of how fast a website feels to a user. Tactics that improve perceived performance allow developers to keep their users engaged while the full web experience loads in the background.

Developers can use Static Maps to immediately show users something relevant while an interactive GL map loads in the background, and we’ve got a tutorial that walks through exactly how to do this.

Now Build

Start building with the Static Images API or Static Tiles API and show use what you build on Twitter using #BuiltWithMapbox. If Static Maps are missing a key feature for you, let us know!