One of the most requested features for Google Photos may actually be coming soon: Explore Map. This will let you see your photos and videos uploaded on the app on a map view by location. Some developers have been able to make this feature work in latest version of the app but it may still be in the testing stage for now. Nevertheless, we will probably be seeing this feature soon so you will be able to view your photos in a more geographical way.
The folks at XDA Developers enabled the feature in the Google Photos version 4.52 which started rolling out already. Basically, under the Search tab, you’ll now see a map widget under the Places section. To launch the Explore Map feature, you can tap the button directly or tap one of the location chips under the widget. Those using it for the first time will get the introduction about what the feature is which is basically to help you see your photos organized by location on a map.
The map will use various information like your camera’s GPS, Google Location History, as well as landmarks that it is able to detect from your photos. You can pan around the map to see the various locations you’ve been to. You may also see a heatmap to show you where you take a lot of pictures. Tapping on a photo will show you a map view of where it was taken. But of course, this is only if your location data was saved with the photo.
It’s not really a big deal to have an Explore Map option on Google Photos. But it’s interesting to have especially if you travel a lot or if you’d like an overview of the places that you’ve been to if you like taking pictures. It’s a long-requested feature for long-time users so maybe they think it’s time to bring it, while we’re all just longing to be traveling normally again.
The feature is available on Google Photos 4.52, but only those who know how to enable it. Regular users would have to wait for when or if Google will roll it out.
