Newsletter
A section dedicated to questions and answers for and from the online community is coming to the Google Maps Android app and Google’s mobile Search, the Mountain View, California-based Internet giant announced on Wednesday. The newly introduced functionality started being distributed to all users around the world earlier today and will likely take several days until it’s available to everyone. Only Android users will be able to access the Q&A section in Google Maps for the time being, the company confirmed, without elaborating on when owners of iOS devices can expect to receive the same feature. While the firm didn’t specifically clarify on the matter, it seems that the Q&A section is coming to eligible devices as part of a server-side switch seeing how Google Maps hasn’t received a client update since last week. Regardless, you should still make sure your app is up to date if you’re hoping to be among the first users to receive the latest addition to Google’s popular navigation service.
Anyone whose app was already updated can start posting questions for the Google Maps community based on their location of interest, meaning all they have to do is open the app and search for any particular place. The same feature works in a nearly identical manner within Google Search where all users have to do is send a query pertaining to some location and tap on the related business listing. Both courses of action will take you to a new interface dedicated to the place you searched for and scrolling down on this screen will reveal the existence of the new “Question & Answers” card which you can expand by simply tapping on it. From here, you’re able to ask a question or respond to one, in addition to supporting other members of Google’s online community who take the time to answer various user inquiries. The latter can be done by tapping the thumbs up icon next to any comment, and doing so will increase the visibility of the post you decided to support. As expected, the most upvoted answer will appear immediately beneath the question which started the original thread.
Owners of locations listed on Google Maps are also able to ennoble this section by adding the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) card to it, which is doable as soon as one verifies their ownership of any particular place with Google. The Internet giant has been testing this feature for a few days before releasing it on a worldwide level and may opt to expand on the functionality in the future.