Enhance your navigation experience with these 10 Google Maps’ features

By Zernab Farooqi - May 16, 2024

Our lives now wouldn't be the same without Google Maps. Maps has evolved beyond just a navigation app. You can use it to give your friends and family real-time location updates or to seek directions to a popular coffee shop in a new city. This app is not as simple as it seems. This app is not what it first appears to be.

If you are not familiar with Google Maps, these ten features will help you make the most out of the most widely used mapping tool in the world:

Enhance your navigation experience with these 10 Google Maps’ features

1. Google Gemini Update

With the recent addition of generative AI capabilities to Google Maps via Gemini, voice commands can now use to initiate navigation to a specific location. Because of the two features' stronger integration, interacting with Google Maps is effortless and convenient, especially when riding a bike.

2. Google Maps with Electric Vehicle Update

More people are turning to other ways of transportation to improve environmental sustainability. These environmentally friendly solutions not only assist to reduce fuel expenses, but they are also more economical than standard petrol or diesel vehicles. Despite these advantages, the shortage of charging outlets might be a problem for consumers. To solve this issue, Google has released an update to its Maps features. This update allows customers to simply find the nearest charging station and even detect charging points along their route.

3. Travel Back in Time

The street view time travel function in Google Maps allows you to travel back in time and see how a place or area seemed a few years ago. Please keep in mind that this service is only available in certain areas and locations.

4. Share your current location with loved ones.

You can also use Google Maps to share your current location with friends and family, which is useful when traveling to a new area. You can share your live location for a certain amount of time or forever, with the option to manually turn it off and stop sharing your location information. Please keep in mind that this function will shorten the battery life of your smartphone.

5. Save your vehicle's parked location

Modern cities sometimes have a problem finding parking, but it may also be difficult to remember where we park our vehicles, especially when the neighborhood is similar in appearance. With Google Maps, it becomes easier to find your vehicle when return by just marking the precise GPS location of your car or bike using the Save Your Vehicle Parking location function.

Enhance your navigation experience with these 10 Google Maps’ features

6. Get weather information

With Google Maps Apps, you can now get real-time weather information and the air quality index of your location. Travelers can easily plan accordingly using the weather prediction feature available on Google Maps.

7. Indoor live view

These days, it's quite simple to get lost in an airport or large mall. With the indoor live view feature, you can navigate and find your boarding gate or a specific store with ease. But as of right now, this capability is only available in little more than 10,000 locations, which include popular malls and shopping centers in the US and other big airports.

8. Offline navigation

Another valuable feature of Google Maps is the ability to download a city's map for convenient navigating. This is especially helpful if you want to visit a new location where internet service may be poor. You will not encounter any problems navigating in real time using offline maps.

9. Set your work and home location

Using Google Maps to quickly identify the quickest routes with the least amount of traffic is a great way to avoid the hassle of traveling during peak hours. If you want Google Maps to find the best route for you automatically while leaving the office or home, make sure that you have already set your home or office address in the Maps app.

10. Discover new places with AI

This feature on Google Maps will make it much easier for users to find new destinations. Google Maps now responds to queries regarding new party spots, appliance stores, and other areas. You can even ask the map to select the best alternative for you by providing an AI-generated summary.

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Zernab Farooqi

My name is Zernab Farooqi and I am from Lahore, Pakistan. I graduated from Punjab University in Lahore with a master's degree in human resource management in 2016. I am honest with my work. I am a Multitasker, a positive thinker, and have a "Can do" attitude. My hobbies are traveling, listening to music, cooking, gaming, photography, and writing.