PlaceAutoCompleteFragment in android not showing suggestions and closes after entering the first letter

The autocomplete widget service in the Google Places API for Android is not working as expected. I have included the fragment in my xml page and also added the listener activity to my onCreate().
Then I start executing the autocomplete fragment, I click the first letter of the word I want to search and suddenly instead of showing suggestions the onError() gets executed and it closes.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <fragment xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:map="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
        xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
        android:id="@+id/map"
        android:name="com.google.android.gms.maps.SupportMapFragment"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        tools:context="com.akhil.maplocation.MapsActivity" />
    <fragment
        android:id="@+id/place_autocomplete_fragment"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:name="com.google.android.gms.location.places.ui.PlaceAutocompleteFragment"
        />
</RelativeLayout>

The mainactivity for this is:

public class MapsActivity extends FragmentActivity implements OnMapReadyCallback {

    private GoogleMap mMap;
    LatLng fromadd;
     @Override
        protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
            super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
            setContentView(R.layout.activity_maps);
           PlaceAutocompleteFragment autocompleteFragment = (PlaceAutocompleteFragment)
                    getFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.place_autocomplete_fragment);


            autocompleteFragment.setOnPlaceSelectedListener(new PlaceSelectionListener() {
                @Override
                public void onPlaceSelected(Place place) {
                    // TODO: Get info about the selected place.
                    fromadd = place.getLatLng();
                    double lat = fromadd.latitude;
                    double lng = fromadd.longitude;        
                    gotoLocation(lat, lng, 15);
                }

                @Override
                public void onError(Status status) {
                    // TODO: Handle the error.
                    Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(),"failure",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                }
            });
mMap.setOnMapClickListener(new GoogleMap.OnMapClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onMapClick(LatLng latLng) {
                MarkerOptions markerOptions = new MarkerOptions();
                markerOptions.position(latLng);
                fromadd = latLng;
                markerOptions.title(latLng.latitude + ":" + latLng.longitude + " " + latLng.toString());
                mMap.clear();
                mMap.animateCamera(CameraUpdateFactory.newLatLng(latLng));
                mMap.addMarker(markerOptions);
            }
        });


        mapFragment.getMapAsync(this);
}

@Override
    public void onMapReady(GoogleMap googleMap) {
        mMap = googleMap;

        if (ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED && ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {                
            return;
        }
        mMap.setMyLocationEnabled(true);

}