It’s been 15 years since Google Maps made its way into our digital lives and helped us get around places. To celebrate its anniversary, Google is releasing a new version of the navigation app. The features are now more streamlined into five, easy-to-access tabs. They also launched a new icon “that reflects the evolution we’ve made mapping the world. And of course, they’re also bringing more transit features to help you go around your city or the place you’re visiting.
The new version of Google Maps now has five tabs at the bottom of the screen: Explore, Commute, Saved, Contribute, and Updates. The Explore tab lets you discover new places nearby, including information, ratings, and reviews for more than 200 places around the world. Commute is where you’ll find all the navigation tools that you need, whether you’re in your car or riding a bus or train, with real-time updates, travel times, alternate routes, etc.
The Saved tab is where you’ll find all your saved places so you can organize your next trip or just remember the places you visited or want to visit. Contribute is for the users who love sharing local knowledge and missing places, as well as reviews and photos of the places they visited. Lastly, Updates is a new tab and this is where you’ll see trending places, must-see spots from both local experts and publishers. You can also chat with business owners in this tab.
You also now get a new Google Maps icon that is more reflective of their current evolution as more than just a navigation app. But for the navigation part, they’ve introduced transit features that add more insights to your travel. You now have temperature, accessibility, and women’s section information. You’ll also know if there is security onboard, whether it’s a security guard or security cameras. In Japan, you’ll also now get the number of carriages available in the trains.
Google Maps will also be expanding their Live View mode to help you as you walk and they will be testing more capabilities as well. Watch out for a celebratory car icon when you use it to navigate. Happy 15th birthday Google Maps!
