Newsletter
In case you missed the Google Maps update yesterday or it hasn’t come through yet to your device, a new version of the app begun rolling out bringing it forward to version 9.10 which brings in new features as well as the general bug fixes and improvements we see from pretty much any app update. If you haven’t used Maps in a while now is good time to give it another go, especially with the new features from the latest version. If you happen to see the Google IO15 keynote, you likely already know Maps will be getting some pretty hefty changes eventually, but this version of the app does not include those additions. It does however add in some nifty perks.
If you’re the type of person to view photos of locations you search for in Maps, Google has made the experience of browsing through these photos better by transitioning the old gallery view for Maps photos into a flowing vertical list. This makes it possible to see multiple photos as the list takes up nearly the entire page. Google has also removed the overflow menu from the page when viewing individual photos and has relocated the options for adding new photo uploads and reporting images right on the page as icons for those actions. It’s also now possible to see car rental bookings at the locations where you pick up/drop off vehicles on the map.
Other changes include a redesign of the screen for “Your Places” that now looks a little bit more material alongside a new photo button which allows users to manage the pictures they upload to Your Places. Lastly, Google has also fixed a bug in the settings menu which was causing the “Shake to send feedback” option to initiate when users were simply walking with the phone in hand with very slight movement. In the update, Google is making this feature a default disabled option, however, users can still re-enable it if they actively use it. Settings also now has a new option inside for showing the scale on the map either one hundred percent of the time or only while users are zooming in and out on the map. If you haven’t gotten the update to Maps already you can hit the link here to grab the latest version of the apk.