Google Places API – Legacy vs New

Google now has two Google Places APIs: Legacy and New.

The Address Autocomplete plugin must use the legacy Places API. Here is the simple reason why:

The legacy Places API allows address autocomplete to be applied to any existing form input element on the page, the Places (New) API does not.

The Places (New) API injects it’s own entire element onto the page in addition to any existing input elements. As such, the input styling will not match and the address data is not including with the appropriate input element when your form is submitted.

You may see a warning in your browser console like this:

The legacy Places API does not have any specific deprecation date. At worst, it will still work for several more years to come.Hopefully Google will realize their mistake in how this new API must be implemented and allow the legacy to continue indefinitely.