Google just celebrating the 15 year anniversaryof Google Maps and in doing so, they released a brand new version of the Google Maps app. So in this video, I'm gonna take you throughwhat's new with the Google Maps app, and I'm going to share with you some helpful tipsalong the way. Let’s dive in.
Before we dive into the app, I want to pointout that you’ll need to make sure you have the latest version of Google Maps downloadedfrom either the play store on Android or the App Store for iOS. You’ll know you’re using the new versionbecause the app icon is a bit different from the old Google Maps logo. The new logo is a simple shape of a map pinmade up of the Google brand colors on a white background.
Now when you first open the app on a mobiledevice, you’ll be greeted with popups that show you where certain things have moved inGoogle maps. Location sharing, timeline & settings arenow accessed by tapping your Google profile icon in the top right hand corner on the app. Google Maps on your desktop through a browserstill uses the grey menu in the top left hand corner to access these settings. One of the more significant changes to theapp’s layout are the new tabs you’ll find at the bottom: Explore, Commute, Saved, Contribute,and Updates.
These sections better reflect the main usespeople now Google Maps for. Hitting the explore tab will bring up a windowthat invites you to explore the area you’re currently in and you can drag it up furtherto see different areas of interest to explore. Restaurants, sports bars, places of interest,and one new thing Google added here that’s really useful is events. So you can see all the local events in thearea you’re exploring through the app.
The explore tab isn’t just great for exploringyour home town though, it’s also great for exploring potential vacation destinations. So for example, let's say I've always wantedto go to Montreal. Shout out to my Canadian fans out there. Uh..I've always wanted to go to Montreal andI know I want to go to the city, but I don't quite yet know what I want to do when I getthere. In the the search bar I’d search for Montreal,then I’d click on the tab that appears below. This will bring up a tab similar to what yousee in the explore tab. You can see points of interest, restaurants,hotels, attractions and you can even see events.
So if you know when you’ll be in the placeyou’re exploring, you can incorporate these events into your plans. To see more about a particular event, youcan click on it and that’ll bring you to a page where you can add the event to yourcalendar, see more details about it, the expected traffic and more. Now let’s go back to our Montreal explorepage and scroll down a bit further, you’ll see we have lists, like what’s trending,or lists like best pizza in Montreal ect. Scrolling further down, you’ll see the bestrated places to eat and drink.
The featured lists you see here are generatedbased on your location history, so Google will try and guess the places you might wantto check out based on the places you’ve already been. Google will also take into account your foodand drink preferences when recommending new places to try. To set your food and drink preferences, goto settings by clicking on your Google profile icon, then click on settings, then click exploringplaces, food and drink preferences. Here you’ll be able to tell Google whattypes of places you’re interested in and more importantly, what types of places you'renot interested in. If you have any dietary preferences you canadd them here as well. And that’s the new Explore tab in GoogleMaps, it’s a great tab and one that I use quite often since this new update.
I typically use Google Maps to decide whatplaces I want to go eat or go shop based on where they are on the map, how close are theirlocations to areas I know I'm already going to be in, and what does the parking situationlook like. Oh and that reminds me, heres a tip for thoseof you who are concerned about always trying to find a great place to park when you'retraveling to a destination, just scroll to the area in Google maps you want to searchfor parking, like Downtown Raleigh for example, and then search for the term parking at thetop and you’ll see all the available parking decks and lots around downtown. Now no longer will have an excuse to say youcan’t meet downtown because “they’re no parking.” Clearly this is not true. Anyways, back to the tabs. The Commute tab houses your normal commuteinformation. It’ll show you how long it’ll take toget to work or your home location and also show you how the current traffic is lookingand how that compares to how it should be at other times. For a detailed list of the navigation steps,click more info and you can see all the various steps in your navigation. Next up, let’s talk about the saved tab. Now you may have noticed on our Montreal exploretab, at the top there’s a save button, when you click save it’ll bring up a window thathas a few lists in there already: starred places, favorites, or want to go. You can also create new lists, for example:2020 vacation ideas. When creating a new list, you can give yourlist a name and description as well as share it with others, so let's say you and yourpartner, you're looking to go on vacation somewhere, you can go ahead and create a listcalled like Vacation List, share it with your partner. And then they'll be able to see all the placesthat you add to the list as well as you can see the places they add to the list.
Oh and one other nice feature here is whenyou add a place to a list, you can actually add a little note to describe your thoughtsabout the place, so your partner can see more information on the list than just the nameof the place.
For example, I can say why exactly I likeMontreal for our potential 2020 vacation getaway. When you click the Saved Tab you’ll be ableto see your lists and your timeline of places you’ve visited.
At the top there are several other sections. Labeled shows you the different addressesyou have labeled in association with someone’s name. So for example, here I’ll see addresseslike my friends address or my parents house etc.
Reservations will pull data from your gmailand calendar so for example things like restaurant reservations or even things like dentist appointmentsI’ve seen show up here. Following shows the places you’re following. Visited shows you all the places you’vevisited recently. You have full control over having your locationhistory saved and you can turn this off in settings.
The maps section will show you the maps sectionsyou’ve downloaded. These are especially useful if you’re navigatingin a place with a poor data connection or in a foreign country where you have no dataconnection. Alright, well that’s the saved tab, nextlet’s look at the contribute tab. When opening the contribute tab, you’llsee a place that you recently visited that Google would like you to rate, to see moresuggestions for areas you can contribute to, click contribute more. Further down you’ll see stats about yourcontributions. You can see your photos and reviews here aswell. At the top you’ll see a few buttons. Edit map allows you to edit Google Maps bysaying a business or landmark is missing, there’s a missing address for a place, aroad that exists but doesn’t exist on Google maps, wrong information on Google maps, reportyour blue location dot is in the wrong place or share your opinions about Google maps.
Add a place allows you to add informationabout a place that should be on the map and should be publicly visible. Write a review will bring you to a screenwhere you’ll see your current location and the places around you you can write a reviewabout. Of course you have the option to search fora place or address so you can write a review. The last button is pretty self explanatory,here Google Maps will access your photos and you can select the photos you’d like tocontribute to a specific place.
Alright, that’s it for the contribute tab,now let’s take a look at the updates tab. Updates is a really cool tab. When you open the tab you’ll see updateson local places like restaurants based on your preferences. You’ll see things from various local newssites like stories on restaurant openings, local suggestions, trending places this week,and more. These suggestions are based on your locationhistory and saved home and work addresses as well as areas you follow, places you savedto your “want to go” and “favorites” lists and places Google Maps thinks you’llbe interested in.
When you find a place you want to visit, hitthe want to go bookmark icon and this will be saved to your “want to go” list. To change the areas you follow, click thethree dots at the top in the updates tab, select manage for you. It’s here where you can choose to stop seeingupdates about an area by tapping following, to change an area, tap its name and move thearea and to add a new area, tap add area and move the map. Alright well thats it for all the stuff inthe new tabs in the Google maps app. Now before we wrap up I do want to take youthrough two quick things in Google Maps that are new and the first one is a feature calledLive View. When you pull up a location in Google Mapsyou’re planning to walk to, select directions and you’ll see a new tab called “LiveView.” Live view uses your smartphone camera to showyou exactly where to go, overlaying arrows over your current view.
It’s a pretty useful feature to use whereyou don’t know where to go in a city. Do note this feature isn’t globally availablein all locations. Lastly, if you drive an electric car likeI do, you can save what plug your electric car uses in Google Maps settings. Click on your Google profile icon, selectsettings, electric vehicle settings, and then choose the plugs you can use with your carwhen searching for places to charge on Google Maps. Alright, well that’s it for what’s newwith the Google Maps in 2020. If you liked this video, make sure to hitthat thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel to see more updates on theGoogle Maps, other Google services as well as Google products. For 6 Months Later
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if you have any doubt. please let me know