Before the holiday travel season gears up, it’s a good time to explore some of the newer and more helpful features in Google Maps and Apple’s Maps.
This year’s versions are using artificial intelligence to create more precise imagery, and to help you learn even more about driving routes and nearby places. In some cases, you can even chat with your maps app about where you’re going.
(Keep in mind that some features are not available for all phones, languages and countries — and always verify A.I.-generated advice.)
Here’s a tour.
Google Maps
Back in March, Google announced an overhaul of Google Maps that incorporates its Gemini A.I. assistant into the apps for Android and iOS, web browsers, and the Android Auto car-dashboard software to assist in planning and navigation.
Google Maps has long offered its Street View and Immersive View options for exploring photorealistic cityscapes, and has been steadily adding 3-D maps. Tap the Layers icon in the upper-right corner of the map and select Satellite. Swipe with two fingers to tilt the map angle. The Immersive View option on a location’s information card also shows a detailed 3-D perspective.
You can zoom in automatically by tapping the screen twice, or one-handedly zoom in and out with just your thumb. Tap the screen twice, keeping your thumb down on the second tap, and drag up or down to adjust the zoom level. The move works in Google Maps for Android and iOS, and Apple’s Maps.
If you’re driving, the new Immersive Navigation mode pulls real-time data and creates 3-D imagery to more accurately depict current traffic conditions, intersections, highway exits and other elements. You can select the map’s style in the settings. Google Maps automatically adjusts the zoom level as you approach a turn, shows more of your route in advance and analyzes the pros and cons of alternate routes (like tolls and traffic).
Google’s Ask Maps feature offers conversational answers and personalized suggestions, just like a separate A.I.-powered trip planner.
Tap the Ask Maps button on the Google Maps screen and type (or speak) your requests, like “create a five-day driving trip from Minneapolis to Seattle and highlight barbecue restaurants and charging stations along the route.” As with chatbots, you can ask follow-up questions to design your trip.
Many of the place-information panels accompanying the maps include Gemini-powered “know before you go” tips and other guides, but you can make specific, complex requests in Ask Maps — like finding indoor child-friendly attractions near your hotel that open early, for example. Ask Maps can order takeout meals and make restaurant reservations, among other tasks.
Gemini provides hands-free assistance for drivers using Android Auto as well. The most customized advice comes from Gemini’s Personal Intelligence, which taps into your use of other Google products like Search, Calendar and Gmail to base suggestions on what the A.I. knows about your life.
You may be prompted to connect your Google content across apps with Personal Intelligence, but you can decline if you have privacy concerns. In his review of Gemini and Ask Maps, Brian X. Chen, the Tech Fix columnist for The New York Times, suggested creating a separate Gmail account for travel-related A.I. assistance.
Apple’s Maps
In iOS 27, Apple has also given its Maps software an A.I. boost that results in crisper aerial city views and timely details about nearby establishments.
To switch to Apple’s immersive recreations of a city from the standard 2-D view, tap the folded-map icon on the main screen, select Satellite, close the Map Modes box and then swipe up with two fingers (or tap the 3-D button) to see the area with an added dimension. Apple has retired its automated Flyover city tours, but announced these new high-resolution views for 350 cities this summer.
To see an expanded weather forecast for a location in Maps (or Google Maps), press the small temperature icon on the screen.
Apple recently introduced its Local Lists for Maps. These guides automatically compile crowdsourced suggestions for popular attractions in an area, like trendy restaurants. To find the Local Lists, tap the city’s info card under the map.
Turn-by-turn directions in Apple Maps have long been available on iPhones — and are especially convenient on those connected to Apple’s CarPlay dashboard software. Siri AI, Apple’s revamp of its virtual assistant, offers hands-free aid with researching trips, getting directions, reporting accidents and more. (Siri AI is in its testing phase, and Apple has privacy information online for the Apple Intelligence powering it.)
The Google and Apple maps apps are typically the default tools, but you have options. These include Google’s navigation-focused Waze app, the privacy-conscious Organic Maps and the feisty, 30-year-old MapQuest, which recently added a “surveillance layer” that reveals license-plate-reading cameras.
The post Hit the Road This Season With These Useful New Map Features appeared first on New York Times.
