Timed to arrive ahead of the summer travel season, Google’s bringing new features to Maps focused on discovery and navigation.
New “glanceable directions,” which Google announced in February, will start rolling out this month in the Maps app on Android and iOS. They’ll let users who opt-in track walking, cycling and driving trip progress from their lock screen or route overview, and see updated ETAs and notifications about where to make each turn.
Arriving alongside glanceable directions is updates to Recents on desktop, a shortcut that automatically organizes places you researched in Maps into a highlight on the side of the Maps screen. Soon, Google will save places in Recent highlights even after you’ve closed the Google Maps window, and adds tools to remove places you’ve viewed, create custom routes between destinations and share a selection of places with someone else.
Lastly, Immersive View, Google’s AI-powered feature on the iOS and Android Maps app that fuses together images to create a multidimensional view of the world, is expanding to over 500 landmarks. Among the highlights are Prague Castle and Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Christina Tong, senior product manager at Google Maps, shared more in a blog post this morning:
“With the time slider [in Immersive View], you can see what the weather will be like at different times of day and how crowded it will be so you can plan ahead. And where we have data available, you can peek inside of restaurants and cafes to help you decide whether you want to make a reservation.”
Source @TechCrunch
