Anyone who understands location-based apps know that GPS is not the most reliable source of your exact location. If you’re in an area with a lot of buildings and interferences with GPS, then your “blue dot” may probably be jumping all over the place. Google Maps is now using an alternative way to be able to calibrate your location a bit more accurately. You will now be able to use Live View to tell Google where you are exactly if using GPS and the compass is a bit more complicated.
9 to 5 Google shares that Google Maps will now let you use Live View in a sort-of augmented reality experience to make sure that the blue dot which shows your supposed location is actually where you really are. When you see a beam with your blue dot, it signifies the direction you’re pointed in. If you see a wider beam, it means it’s not as accurate but a narrower one is better.
When you tap that blue dot, you’ll now see a new option under “See nearby places”, “Share your location”, and “Save your parking”. You should now see a “Calibrate with Live View” icon there. Tapping it will launch the camera UI used by Live View. You will be asked to point at buildings, street signs, and other surrounding areas. Google will now use what it saw through your camera as well as years’ worth of Street View data.
After that, your location should be “highly accurate” and the beam on your blue dot should be replaced by a solid arrow. You can probably still use the compass to calibrate your location as it’s still at the bottom of the full-screen menu. If you want to use that, you’ll have to do the figure 8 motion to help Google Maps figure out your location but just like GPS, it’s not always reliable and sometimes it doesn’t even work.
At least now, you have the more accurate (hopefully) Live View to calibrate your location. It’s available on ARCore-compatible Android devices that are running the latest version of Google Maps.
