Integration With Google Business Profile

As of April 2022, Google allows you to manage your Google business profile (formerly known as Google My Business, or GMB) directly through Google Maps. This is a huge change that eliminates the need for a business account management app, and indeed the GMB app is expected to disappear.

Google Reviews- Customers will also be able to write Google reviews for your business, and your feedback can also be received directly through Google Maps

Sea level (computer and application)

Sea level can be significant if your road is winding and you want to plan rest points and of course if you ride a bike. When you create a route with a start and destination on a computer with Google Maps, you can see the altitude at any point in the route when you check the steps.

In the app, the graph appears if you make a downward pull where the route summary is (you can also click on "Steps and more").

Road stops and quick destination reset (computer and app)

If you are navigating the app, you can add stop points using the top three points after you start looking for a route.

At this point you will need to choose another destination (I know.. it could be  confusing).

On your computer you can quickly reset the target and measure distance using the right mouse button.

Departure time alerts (app)

Once you have selected a route in the app, you can click on the three points and set a desired future departure or arrival time.

Google Maps will consider all the different parameters and will give you an alert before you have to set off.

Sharing an advanced place or progress in travel and reporting updates on the road (app)

At any time you can submit your location by opening the side menu and selecting "Share my location".

Unlike regular sharing of places and sites, here you can choose exactly what time to share or maybe share continuously until you decide to stop sharing.

Other than that you can update who you need to meet in your progress: Once you have started navigating the app, click on the up arrow.

You can now share your current location with any of your contacts.

In this screen you can also report hazards in a similar way to Waze.

Parking space reservation (Google Maps app)

If you have reached a crowded street, you can briefly click on your location and choose to save a parking space.

If you click on more information after marking the place, you can take notes, add the parking time and even save a picture of the place, great if you are parking in a huge parking lot.

Liveview (App)

This feature is relatively new and Google has done some serious PR for it (you may have even seen it on the news).

If you choose to walk, Google Maps can give you instructions using the camera and a kind of augmented reality (as if you were wearing Google Glass, only this time they are really working).

The huge benefit is that you no longer have to rotate yourself and the phone together to see if you are in the right direction, and should also be less lagging when you reset yourself.

The problem is that this feature devours resources from the phone.

Even in models from the last two years, it can become a slide show, so you should only use this feature until you have seen the destination or memorized the route.

Other than that, you also can not walk with your head stuck in the phone for too long so that you do not accidentally walk in a red light or get stuck in all sorts of things…

Google Maps - Download Maps in advance (App)

Fortunately, today Wi-Fi networks have become standard abroad as well, most likely even if you stay close to the hotel, you will still have to spend quite a bit of time without an available connection, and surfing abroad is quite expensive or very limited (depending on the package you did or did not do).

The good news is that whenever you are connected to Wi Fi or even before you even get overseas, you can download the relevant maps into the device.

Because GPS positioning does not depend on the surfing package, you will not feel any difference in use unless you are navigating in motion.

To do this, click on the main menu of the app (on the right) and select "When there is no internet connection".

You can also set the app to run only when there is a Wi Fi connection.

For reasons of up-to-dateness the maps are not saved forever and you will receive an alert when the maps are no longer available.

Maintaining your privacy (app and computer)

Google Maps stores a lot of information on your "timeline" and it is not surprising to suddenly see all kinds of recommendations based on places you have been.

If you want to delete this information, you can go to the Placement History page and see exactly what information Google has stored with it.

Along with deleting the history, you can also turn off tracking.

By the way, canceling the history save only affects what is stored in your personal Google account.

If you want to make sure that information is not stored elsewhere on the phone as well, you should check the permissions of each app under the general settings for account apps.

Navigation by public transportation and comparison between taxi applications

A list of routes will now open for you with the total length of a bus ride combined with foot exchanges (if any).

You can also give prioritize certain types of transportation, choose a departure time and even see when the last departure time is.

After choosing a route you can "run" it and get information about the arrival of the next bus or when exactly a line needs to be changed.

An alternative is to use the "taxi" option (a symbol of raising a hand) to compare different application services.

Quick access to Google Street View (app and PC) and check historical versions (PC)

To see a specific place in Street View (if available), simply click on it and then on the preview image of Street View (with the circle icon closing the circle).

On the other hand, if you want to see all the places available on Streetview in the area, you have the layers button in the app on the right side of the map (looks like two pages placed on top of each other).

Clicking on it will mark in color all the places that can be seen in Streetview view, another click will turn off the marking.

On the computer you can also see different times when it was filmed.

When you enter the Street View of a place like "Google Campus", you will see a small sign of a clock below all the details.

If you click on it, a timeline will open for you.

 

At the moment this is only the last decade or so, unless Google decides to perform a historical reconstruction based on scanning archive images or something like that.

Send location without internet connection (app)

If you are in a place that does not have an internet connection and still need to share your place with others, you can share a special code via SMS.

Instead of using a standard place-sharing, you can scroll through the details of the place (a long click will mark a place that is not a site or a street) and click on the code next to the "+" sign which is made up of dots.

You can copy this code to the clipboard and share via standard SMS messages.

Anyone who gets the code can put it in the app search box.

Activating night mode (app)

Although the Google app is supposed to automatically detect the night mode according to the time of day, but if you want to change this behavior, you can go to "Settings" and then to "Navigation options".

At the bottom of the screen under "Map View" you can choose between a color scheme for day and a color scheme for night.

Sync with your favorite media player (app)

In the same navigation settings screen under "Sound and sound" you can activate the option to synchronize with the media application running on the device (the option is off by default).

Then its navigation buttons will appear within Google Maps. At this time, sync seems to be limited to the Google Play app and standard streaming services.

Avoidance of toll roads, etc. (application)

It may be a little less useful in "Waze Land", but it's good to know that Google Maps also has advanced route filtering options.

Once you have selected a route, you can click on the three points and then on "Driving Options".

Here you can filter out toll roads, highways and even a ferry ride (which is probably really irrelevant here…).

A more detailed view of malls and buildings

If you have reached a relatively well-known place, you may be able to navigate with the help of Google Map within it simply by pulling out the app and even between floors.

You do not even have to be physically present: if you see a crowded list of stores, just enlarge it and you will see a more detailed view, although keep in mind that in this situation you will not always see a floor view.