Google Maps just got a big upgrade. A indeed great improvement. In fact, according to Google, it is big update in the company’s mapping service for over a decade.
What’s new? Two features that have the power to change the way users use the app completely: Ask Maps and Focused Navigation.
Ask for Maps
A new AI feature, Ask Maps brings the most advanced Gemini models to the app. Goal: allow users to ask local questions in a conversational manner.
Users can get real specifications, the company says, and ask questions like “My phone is dying – where can I charge it without waiting in a long line for coffee?”
Ask Maps and it will suggest places where you can do just that. How accurate the suggestion is is another question.
Ask for Maps
Credit: Google
Google Maps users can also give Ask Maps a list of places they plan to visit, and ask if there’s anything interesting they should check out.
The company says it “analyzes information from more than 300 million locations, including reviews from our community of more than 500 million contributors” to create a travel plan for each user.
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Ask Maps will also refer to your previous preferences when recommending places and businesses — for example, a type of restaurant.
Ask for Maps
Credit: Google
Once a user has selected a location, Ask Maps says it can help make restaurant reservations, save the location to a list for a recent date, and share locations with friends.
Focused Navigation
What’s bigger than another Google app getting an AI feature? Answer: Focused Navigation.
Basically, Google introduced a new way to use Google Maps, with a redesign that the company calls “a complete transformation of the navigation experience, with a redesigned appearance and intuitive directions.”
Immersive Navigation provides a 3D way to navigate the app. Where you drive your avatar highlights important traffic information such as lanes, intersections, traffic lights, and stop signs. Surrounding buildings, overpasses, and landscapes will closely match how they look in real life.
Focused Navigation
Credit: Google
Google Maps also gets a bunch of little features: more advanced notifications of your routes, natural voice guidance and conversation, parking recommendations when approaching your destination, and real-time warnings of traffic jams.
And if you decide to continue using the current direction, or choose another route found by the app, Google Maps will now give you more context for your decision.
Ask Maps is being released today in the US for iOS and Android devices, and will come to the desktop app later in the year. Immersive Navigation will begin rolling out today in the US and expand over the next few months to eligible iOS and Android devices, CarPlay, Android Auto and cars with Google built-in.
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