Annotations are little images(pins by default) that are to used to mark a point of interest in a map. But occasionally the programmer might need to use custom views or images instead of boring pins. This can be easily achieved by creating a image view and then adding the image view to the annotation. A single UIView, UIImageView and one UILabel can be used to display multiple annotations on the same map.

The required code to perform the operation is as follows".

-(MKAnnotationView *)mapView:(MKMapView *)mapView viewForAnnotation:(id <MKAnnotation>)annotation
{
    static NSString * const kPinAnnotationIdentifier = @"PinIdentifier";
    if(annotation == self._mapView.userLocation)
    {
        return nil;
    }

    MyAnnotation *myAnnotation  = (MyAnnotation *)annotation;
    MKAnnotationView *newAnnotation = (MKAnnotationView*)[self._mapView dequeueReusableAnnotationViewWithIdentifier:kPinAnnotationIdentifier];

    if(!newAnnotation)
    {
        newAnnotation = [[MKAnnotationView alloc] initWithAnnotation:myAnnotation reuseIdentifier:@"userloc"];
    }

    NSDictionary *dict=[alertInfoArray objectAtIndex:myAnnotation.ann_tag];
    UIView *anView=[[UIView alloc] init];
    anView.backgroundColor=[UIColor clearColor];

    UIImageView *bgImg=[[UIImageView alloc] init];
    bgImg.image=[UIImage imageNamed:@"house.png"];
    bgImg.backgroundColor=[UIColor clearColor];

    UIImageView *imgView=[[UIImageView alloc] init];
    imgView.tag=myAnnotation.ann_tag;

    UILabel *lblName=[[UILabel alloc] init];
    lblName.font=[UIFont systemFontOfSize:12];
    lblName.textAlignment=UITextAlignmentCenter;
    lblName.textColor=[UIColor whiteColor];
    lblName.backgroundColor=[UIColor clearColor];
    lblName.text=@"TEXT YOU WANT";

    newAnnotation.frame=CGRectMake(0, 0, 70, 212);
    anView.frame=CGRectMake(0, 0, 70, 212);
    bgImg.frame=CGRectMake(0, 0, 70, 106);
    bgImg.image=[UIImage imageNamed:@"car.png"];

    imgView.frame=CGRectMake(8,25,55,48);
    imgView.image=[UIImage imageNamed:@"plane.png"];
    lblName.frame=CGRectMake(5,79,60,10);

    [anView addSubview:bgImg];
    [anView addSubview:imgView];
    [newAnnotation addSubview:anView];

    newAnnotation.canShowCallout=YES;
    [newAnnotation setEnabled:YES];

    return newAnnotation;
}