Photo: BigTunaOnline (Shutterstock)
Google Maps has three new features designed to help you coordinate your plans, such as checking a landmark without leaving your home or tracking your friends’ locations at a festival. Previous features included an area occupancy feature or grocery pickup, but these three new features: photo-realistic aerial view, bike routes, and location-sharing notifications aim to keep you organized, safe, and connected.
aerial view
The “Photorealistic Aerial View” will be available at nearly 100 popular landmarks. This view is available for cities such as London, New York, Barcelona, San Francisco and Tokyo, and will give you an overview of the landmarks in these cities. Google Maps product manager Amanda Leicht Moore wrote in a statement that it’s a step toward “immersive vision.”
The immersive visualization, which was previously announced at Google’s 2022 I/O Conference, combines artificial intelligence with “billions of high-definition aerial, satellite and Street View images.” . The view would work as a simulation of the city you want to visit, so you can, for example, see the inside of a restaurant without leaving your home.
Immersive view isn’t available yet, but aerial view of landmarks is now rolled out worldwide in Google Maps on iOS and Android. To find an aerial view of a landmark on Google Maps, Google says to search for the landmark and go to the photos section.
Testing this new feature, I went to my Google Maps app on my phone, for this example I typed Leaning Tower of Pisa, went to images and the first thing that came up was a 30 second video, yes a view aerial, of the milestone. So this new feature doesn’t work like Street View where you, the user, can move around the area.
Cycling routes
Screenshot: Google
Cycling directions for Google Maps have been available for about 12 years. This new feature will allow cyclists to compare bike routes and “see even more granular details (when such data is available)” for their trip. (Google has not yet clarified what those granular details are.)
You’ll also be able to see the elevation of the route, as well as if there are steep hills, stairs, or heavy car traffic along the route. The new feature will also give you a very detailed route breakdown so cyclists know if they’re cycling on something like a main road or local street. So you don’t have to cycle through unfamiliar streets anymore.
This feature will roll out in a few weeks in hundreds of cities.
Location sharing notifications
Notifications will now be available for Google Maps, allowing users to be notified when the person sharing a location with you has left or arrived at a location. If someone shares their location with you, you can set up notifications for a particular address to see when they’ve arrived.
“We built this feature with privacy in mind. Notifications can only be set up for someone who has already chosen to share their location with you,” Moore wrote. “The person who has shared their location with you will receive multiple reminders to notify them, including a push notification in the Maps app and an email, along with recurring monthly emails. As always, you’re in control: choose to stop sharing your location or block someone from setting notifications altogether.”
Location sharing notifications on Google Maps have also started rolling out globally for iOS and Android.