If you’re still mourning the digital loss of Google Trips, the tech giant did promise you that most of its best features will be incorporated into their other products, specifically Search and Maps. In the next few weeks, some of these promised features will make its way to Google Maps as they are continuing to position the app as more than just something to help you navigate but more as a valued travel companion that will help you discover new places and new things in old places.
One of the things that users will probably miss about the Trips app is that you are able to find all of your trip reservations and bookings in just one place. Well, Maps will soon have that as all your flight and hotel reservations will be there, aside from finding it in google.com/travel. To see your reservations, tap on the three gray lines at the upper left corner and then go to “Your Places”. The Reservations tab is where you’ll see all your future trips and all the reservations they have been able to pull from your Gmail account.
If you’re one of those directionally-challenged travelers who still can’t figure out which way to go, Maps now has a beta feature called Live View. With the help of augmented reality, arrows and directions are shown in the real world so you know which way you’re supposed to go when navigating on foot in an unfamiliar place. This will be available to Android devices that support ARCore and ARKit.
One of the things we love about Google Maps now is that you can discover new restaurants, create lists of places you want to try out soon, and other food-related features. You can now find restaurants that fit your taste in Your Match. You can even book a reservation right from the Maps app (if the restaurant supports it) and you can also find out how long you’ll wait for a table (based on estimates). If you don’t know what to try out there, you can check the popular dishes feature.
Lastly, the updated version of your Timeline will see all the restaurants and places that you visited, if you have your Location History enabled. You can export the places to a list which you can share and you can even add notes to the places so you won’t forget what you ate or what you liked about it. Reservations, Live View, and the new Timeline will roll out to Google Maps in the coming weeks.
