The time has come for holiday excursions. Google Maps may make navigating this hectic season a bit less stressful, whether you’re running errands, seeing new locations with friends, or going to visit relatives. Just in time for the holidays, we’re offering three enhancements that will make it easier for you to go about and explore.
Explore locations using Live View’s straightforward search capabilities🔍
With the use of artificial intelligence, billions of Street View photographs, and augmented reality, we debuted search with Live View in September to enable you to explore your surroundings more naturally. This visual search experience will roll out on Android and iOS starting the following week in London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Tokyo.
Imagine you are travelling to New York with the intention of finishing your holiday shopping and meeting with pals. To view local retailers and other locations like coffee shops, banks, and ATMs, lift your phone and touch the camera symbol in the search box. You can see where things are and how far away they are with the help of augmented reality (AR)-powered directions and arrows. You can even notice locations that aren’t in your line of sight (like a clothes store down the street) to get a quick overview of the area.
Tap on various location categories to discover local parks, pubs, dessert shops, restaurants, and transport stops to uncover more hangout spots. What’s best? Besides pointing out where things are, you can see important details about each location superimposed, such as whether it is open or closed, how crowded it is, the pricing range, and if the Google Maps community gives it good marks.
Find the finest electric vehicle charging station🚗
If you drive an electric vehicle, you may already be using Google Maps to locate charging stations and obtain up-to-date information on chargers nearby. Finding the finest charging station for your automobile is now much simpler. By using the “rapid charge” filter when looking for “EV charging stations,” you can locate locations with 50kW or more chargers.
This will allow you to charge your vehicle more quickly. To ensure you only see stations with plugs compatible with your car, you may filter for stations that provide your EV’s plug type in different nations. In nations where EV charging stations are accessible, these functionalities are currently operational on Android and iOS.
View locations that are accessible to wheelchairs and lack stairs worldwide🌏
In order to let people know whether a location is wheelchair accessible, we introduced accessible areas in Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States in 2020. This is now available for iOS and Android in every country.
On the Google Maps mobile app, just activate “Accessible Places.” If a company has a wheelchair-accessible entrance, the profile will display a wheelchair icon; otherwise, it will display the same emblem with a strikethrough. You can discover if there is seating, parking, or amenities for those with disabilities. This feature might be beneficial if you wish to avoid stairs because you have a stroller, or baggage, or are using a cart.
It is powered by data from business owners and contributions from the Google Maps community. Simply locate the company profile you wish to change, select “About,” and then “Edit features” to add accessibility information to Google Maps. then select the “accessibility features” to include it in the business profile immediately.
Google Maps can help you make the most of your vacations so you can concentrate on the celebrations by providing even more simple, environmentally friendly, and accessible methods to explore and travel.
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