Three new features are coming to Google Maps, two of which are now rolling out
To help you plan your summer vacations, Google Maps adds what it calls “photorealistic aerial views of nearly 100 of the world’s most popular landmarks in cities like Barcelona, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo.” This is the first step, Google says, towards launching Immersive View, which combines AI with Street View, aerial and satellite imagery.
Google adds aerial photos of landmarks to Google Maps
Google says cycling is up 40% globally, which is no surprise given the warmer weather and higher gas prices. For more than 12 years, Google Maps has provided users with cycling routes based on data from cities in combination with AI. With the new cycling route information from Google Maps you can compare different routes with each other. The data shows you the height of the road or path along your route and you also know in advance whether you will encounter heavy car traffic, stairs or steep slopes.
Location sharing notifications are great for people planning to meet others at a stadium, theater, restaurant or store
The third and final of the three new updates deals with location sharing. Google explains how this works with a realistic scenario. “Suppose you go to a concert with a group of friends. If they’ve already chosen to share their location with you, you can set a notification for the concert venue address so you can see when they’ve arrived and can meet you. You can also set a notification to see when they’ve left the location, in case you break up.”
Location sharing notifications are now coming to Google Maps
To protect user privacy, these notifications can only be set for those who have agreed to share their location with you. As Google said, “The person who shared their location with you will receive multiple reminders to let them know, including both a push notification in the Maps app and an email, along with recurring monthly emails. As always you are in control: you choose to stop sharing your location or to prevent someone from setting up notifications altogether.”
Cycling routes will be rolled out for Google Maps in a few weeks
Two of the three new features are now rolling out in the iOS and Android versions of the Google Maps app. Those are the aerial photos of landmarks and the location sharing notifications. The cycling route information will be rolled out in a few weeks in the hundreds of cities where cycling route descriptions are available.