title: Using the android Google Maps API v2 as a viewer of offline tiles: is it possible?
body: <p>The Google map component (com.google.android.gms.maps.GoogleMap) allows one to render custom tiles (OpenStreetMap or other). These tiles can be on the device and available offline which is what I am doing by extending TileProvider. Doing this in conjunction with a:</p>
  
  <pre><code>mMap.setMapType(GoogleMap.MAP_TYPE_NONE);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am not pulling any data from Google map servers and the component can reasonably be expected to work without an internet connection. 
  (I emphasize here that <strong>I am not trying to cache Google's data</strong>; I am working with offline tiles independently of Google's map servers.) </p>
  
  <p>I thought everything was fine until I realized that the map component won't work if, <strong>when it is executed for the first time</strong>, the device is offline. In such cases I get a message:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>failed to load map. could not contact google servers</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I imagine the reason behind this is Google's API keys which require my app to authenticate in order for the component to be allowed to execute.</p>
  
  <p>Can anyone confirm this is correct? What I would really like to be sure of is that provided that the component is executed once online, it will run ok afterwards. I must make sure that there are no time-out issues which would require the component to re-authenticate later on and which would basically make my app useless. That would require that I move on to some other component (such as OS Android). </p>
  
  <p>Any light on this would be greatly appreciated. Even being pointed to the channel through which I could hope to get a reply from the google developers would be useful.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>