Google has introduced new features in its Maps and Earth app. Google Earth has added over 1,000 more images to its gallery, taking the number up to 2,500 and Google Maps sees a change in its app icon and a redesigned user interface.
On the account of its 15th birthday Google has launched a new look to its Google Maps which is available for both Android and iOs.
New Look for Google Maps
In 2019, Google introduced two new features to Google Maps: Trip attributes and Live View. When using public transport, users can rate their commute through short surveys. Google then uses those answers to predict conditions for future users. The Live View feature merges with Google Street View to give users a reality view of their position. This helps to assure whether you’re heading in the right direction but don’t need the full turn-by-turn voice guidance.
The biggest change is the new icon, which resembles a pin that is normally used to mark points on a map. Google Map’s user interface has been redesigned to make it a bit more user-friendly.
A short video, posted on the Google Maps YouTube channel, documents the icon’s evolution over the past years.
You can now see 5 tabs at the bottom of the app: Explore, Commute, Saved, Contribute, and Updates. These features signify discovering and recommending places, which align with Google’s plans for Google Maps to not only navigate you to your destination but also find new places of interest and rate your interest. The aim is to eliminate the need to use third-party apps like TripAdvisor and such.
The update is in progress, wherein some features may only be available in March, according to Gadgets 360. The availability of certain features may be constrained to some territories.
What to Expect from Google Earth?
Google Earth has been providing beautiful earth images as wallpapers through its Earth View collection for a few years now. This collection ranges from surreal satellite sights of sea bodies, land, mountains and much more.
Google Earth has added 1000 more images making the total to 2500. These images can be downloaded for free on a high resolution screen going upto 4K resolution with bright coloured sharp images.
Google wrote in a blog post, “Over the last decade, the collection has been witnessed by millions around the world as wallpapers for Android devices, screensavers for Chromecast and Google Home, and as an interactive exhibit in Google Earth’s Voyager…Today, we’re making our biggest update to Earth View by adding more than 1,000 new images to the collection.”
To access the Google Earth View Gallery by searching on Chrome, or even install the Earth View Chrome Extension. For the aesthetically inclined people out there, there is also a feature to sort the images by colour using a new colour map.