Replace icon pin by text label in annotation?

Question

Is it possible to replace the pin icon of an annotation by a dynamic text label?

Maybe using css, or dynamically creating an image?

For example a label is do

Answer 1

Here's a Swift 3 variation of the delegate method mentioned in Anna's comment above. Make sure your class conforms to MKMapViewDelegate and that the mapView's delegate is set to self in viewDidLoad().

func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, viewFor annotation: MKAnnotation) -> MKAnnotationView? {
    if annotation is MKUserLocation {
        return nil
    }

    let reuseId = "reuseid"
    var av = mapView.dequeueReusableAnnotationView(withIdentifier: reuseId)
    if av == nil {
        av = MKAnnotationView(annotation: annotation, reuseIdentifier: reuseId)
        let lbl = UILabel(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 50, height: 30))
        lbl.backgroundColor = .black
        lbl.textColor = .white
        lbl.alpha = 0.5
        lbl.tag = 42
        av?.addSubview(lbl)
        av?.canShowCallout = true
        av?.frame = lbl.frame
    }
    else {
        av?.annotation = annotation
    }

    let lbl = av?.viewWithTag(42) as! UILabel
    lbl.text = annotation.title!

    return av
}