Get to Know 15 Incredible Features of Google Maps

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Intro

Google maps grew from humble beginnings. It has since evolved into one of the most reliable navigational apps on the planet. 

Most people don't realize that the app is a treasure trove of great features. Some obvious, others not so much. This article shares some of our favorite Google Maps tricks and tips. 

15 Incredible Features Of Google Maps

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1. Use Voice Commands

Go hands-free with Google maps! Yes, you hear that right. We are so used to typing in our destinations that we never noticed the cool voice command feature in the app. Google Maps has had this feature for some time now. You can use simple voice commands for navigation.

A fantastic new feature that not many know is the Google Assistant integration. You can now simply say "okay Google" followed by a command such as "Text wife." Voice commands serve many benefits. 

They prevent distractions while driving and can be used for almost anything. 

Here Are Some Of The Cool Commands To Try On Your Next Drive:

• How is the traffic ahead? 
• Call my mom at 11 am.
• You can use voice commands to send texts, play music, and even check your next appointment. 

Voice commands let you do more. All while keeping your eyes on the road. 

Here’s a screenshot of Google Maps navigating to a location because of a voice command:

Read: Voice Search Optimization: What is it and its Importance?

2. Pin Parking Location

How many times have we gone to a mall and parked and later had no memory of where the car is? 

It is stressful to look for a vehicle after a pleasant time and waste time. Thankfully, this is another common problem that Google maps solve for you.

You can save your parking location with a pin on your iOS or Android device. Add notes and even alarms to the pinned spot. For example, you can set the alarm to ring when it's time to move your car. 

Here Is How You Can Use This Handy Feature That Isn't Too Well Known:

• Open maps on your phone and tap the blue dot that indicates your current location.
• Tap on it to reveal many hidden options, including saving the current spot as a parking location. 

Never panic about where you parked ever again. 

Here’s a screenshot of Google Maps displaying the parking location of a vehicle:

Read: Important Tips to do Local SEO for Multiple locations

3. Plan Stops On Trips

Everyone loves a road trip. Rarely do you head straight to your destination on one of these? 

Whether it's a long trip or a short one, people make many stops along the route. This could be for a quick bite, a restroom stop, or a quick detour at a local scenic spot or attraction. 

Google maps make adding any number of stops to your trip easy. Never worry about missing a planned stop. Google maps will set your route automatically and remind you of the next stop on your journey.

How To Set Planned Stops?

• Tap the three-dot menu on the right corner of the app. 
• Select "Add stop." Now you search for locations such as grocery stores, attractions, or motels.
• Find the place you need, and it gets added to the list of stops.

Here’s an example of creating multiple stops on Google Maps:

4. Share Live Location

Sharing a live location while on the move is helpful. It's arguably one of the most underrated features of the app. It lets people find you while on the move. It is also useful when directing you in a busy place or during peak hours. 

The location tracking is surprisingly accurate. It tracks your coordinates within a few feet from your actual place. 

To Use This Feature, Perform The Following Steps:

•  Tap the three-dot menu on the right corner of the app and select "share your location." This shares the real-time location.
• You can also select "Share trip progress" during a trip. This will share your journey's progress with anyone until you reach your destination.

You can share the live location with your contacts straight from the app. You can even share this information as a web link with people not on your list. 

Here’s a screenshot of how Google Map displays the live location of users:

5. Use 'Near Me' To Find Anything

The 'near me' feature in Google maps is not as popular as it must be. It comes in handy whenever you are in a new place. It helps you quickly find many types of locations near you.
You can run the 'near me' searches even when you are not using the navigation function in the app.

You can use this to find just about anything: fuel stations, bars, hospitals, pet stores, and much more. You can also open your current location on maps and see what's around you. You can filter further by choosing the type of place. 

For example, you can select the hospital icon to get a grid of all hospitals near you.

Here Are A Few Common Searches You Can Try:

• Cafes near here.
• Book stores near the airport.
• Kids clothing stores in the downtown area.

This feature helps you get around a new place quickly. 

Here’s a screenshot of Google Maps displaying search results in a specific location:

6. Book In-App Rides

Save time and money by using Google Maps to hail a radio taxi service in your city. This is a feature that not many know about. The next time you are searching for a destination, you can pair it with hailing a ride. 

Google Maps is integrated with popular providers such as Uber and Lyft in all major US cities. 

This integration saves you many steps in hailing a ride. You can also see fare comparisons and wait times. Simply choose your ride, and you're off to your destination in no time.

Here Is How You Access This Hidden Feature:

• Search for your destination and tap the 'directions' button.
• Look below the address bar to find an icon of a person waving their hand, the global gesture for hailing a taxi.
• Tap on it to see your nearest Uber or Lyft ride with pricing.
• Select your ride and hop on!

Related: Local SEO Tips for Auto Repair Shops

Here’s a screenshot of Google Maps offering in-app rides:

7. Check Busy Times For Businesses 

Let Google Maps show you how long you may have to wait when you head to your favorite cafe or the nearest Tesco. This is an excellent under-the-hood feature of Google Maps, which can save you time. 

Google has used data from customers and businesses to estimate the busiest times. 

This helps you choose a non-peak time or prepare you mentally for a long wait if you decide to go during busy times.

Let's Look At How You Can Use This Awesome Feature:

• Find a business and tap on it. 
• You will see a "Popular times" section when you scroll down. It shows a graph with peak and non-peak hours. You can even get a real-time report for some businesses. 
• Use the data here to decide when you choose to visit the business. 

This feature is a real-time saver and helps you avoid long queues and hours of frustration. 

Here’s a screenshot of Google Maps showing busy times of restaurant business:

8. Give Nicknames to Favorite Places

We are creatures of habit. We end up going to the same places for work or recreation often. It surely helps if you can bring them up quickly on Google Maps instead of typing in the details each time.

Google Maps has a solution for you here too. You can give names to places you often visit. 

For example, instead of typing "Bristol hospital, west London," you can name the location as "Doc." This is much easier for you to remember. The other benefit is that it's quicker to say as a voice command. 

For example, a simple voice command could be "Is the docs route busy now?". 

There are plenty of other creative and handy ways to utilize this feature. Simply tap on a location and add a label to it to use nicknames. Google Maps will now use the custom label every time instead of the one listed officially on the map. 

Here’s a screenshot of creating a label to give a nickname for a place:

9. Download Offline Maps

When traveling through areas with low or no data connection, you lose live access to Maps. This can be a problem, especially in hilly or desolate regions. It means that you can be stranded or go round in circles if you can't find local help to guide you to your destination. 

Luckily, Google Maps lets you download the trip route offline to your mobile device. This feature is not very well known and can be a life-saver in many situations. 

You Can Download Any Map For Offline Use In Two Ways:

• Voice commands: Choose a map and say "Ok map" to download the map on your Android phone screen.
• Manual download: Tap the menu on the top-right corner and select "offline maps." Now tap "select your own map" to download it.

You can even download maps to an SD card!

Here’s a screenshot of how you can access offline maps:

10. Explore Street Views

One of Google Maps' most underrated but cool features is Street View. It's not that obvious at first glance and is easily missed by most users. Street View puts you at the center of your location with an eye-level view of the surroundings.

Street View provides an interactive panorama of your surroundings. It does this by using actual pictures of the streets stitched right into the map. So, when you use it, it gives a feeling of standing within the map but looking at the real world. 

Read: Step-by-step Setup Guide for Google My Business

One note is that this feature is only available in some locations globally.

Here Is How You Use This Cool Feature:

• Locate a place on the map.
• Scroll and select the photo labeled "Street View." You can also select any thumbnail with the Street View icon.

You can even share a street view image with others. 

Here’s a screenshot of Google Map’s street view:

11. Go Back In Time

The timeline feature was present in Google Maps from as early as 2014. It lets you go back in time with Street View and see how a street or landmark looked in the past. 

With this cool feature, you can see the birth of famous landmarks and even see how a place looks in different seasons.

Here Are A Few Tips And Tricks To Enjoy This Hidden Gem:

• Go to any street view image. Look for a clock icon in the upper left-hand portion of a Street View image. This means that the image supports the timeline feature. Click on it, move the slider through time, and select a thumbnail to see that place in previous years or seasons. 
• This feature is not available on mobile devices, so you will need to use a desktop browser to enjoy it in its full glory. 

Read: Tips to Maintain Local SEO when Moving to a New Location

Here’s an example of the ‘go back in time’ feature:

12. Send Maps to Any Device

Ever wanted to send the Google map you were looking at on your desktop to your phone instantly? 

Yes, Google Maps can do it for you. This is another lesser-known feature of Google Maps. You can beam any map from your desktop to the device of your choice or even your car.

The only catch here is that you must be signed into the web browser with the same Google account you use on your devices.

The Way To Beam The Map Is Pretty Simple:

• Open up the map on your computer linked to your Google account.
• Click 'Send to your phone' just below the search box on the map. Now, choose the phone or tablet you want to send it to. It's that easy.

Read: How Can Local SEO Services Help You Boost Your Local Business?

You can also send it by email or SMS to unlisted devices from the same drop-down menu. 

Here’s how you can send maps to your phone:

13. View Time-specific Traffic

Using Google Maps to see live traffic is a popular feature. A lesser-known feature tucked away is the ability to view traffic estimates at different times of the day. Google Maps has an intelligent traffic estimation tool guided by AI that does this for you. 

This feature is currently supported in the desktop version. 

To use it, enter a destination and click 'directions.' Below the address box, enter the time you want to reach the location. Hit enter to see the probable time estimates for any day or time.

When Can This Feature Be Useful?

• When you plan to head to the airport or train station during peak hours, you don't want to miss your flight due to traffic.
• Estimate arrival time at important events such as seminars or meetings.
• Plan your daily work commute during peak hours.

Here’s an example of Google Maps showing traffic information using different colors:

14. Bypass Toll Roads

There are many ways to reach any destination. If you are traveling outside the city or across state lines, there are two types of roads. 

You can choose the main highways, often choked with traffic, and collect tolls. Then there are the back roads, or country lanes that pass through smaller towns and villages that bypass these toll plazas.

The smart use of Google Maps is to locate these alternate routes and avoid paying tolls. Use this cool feature to save money on your next road trip and travel solely through free access routes. 

Here Is How You Access This Feature:

• Tap on 'route options' when looking for directions to your destination.
• Toggle "Tolls off" to see routes that do not have toll plazas. 

A caveat to bear in mind is that avoiding tolls could add more miles to your trip but save you money!

Here’s how you can bypass toll roads:

15. Use Advanced Gestures 

Gestures such as pinch to zoom are now universal. Even a novice phone user is aware of how to use it. We all know that you can use this and many other common gestures within Google Maps. 

Most people don't know that you can use many advanced gestures. These can help you do a lot more with one hand when driving. 

Here Are Our Favorites:

• Place your index and thumb finger on the map and make a twisting motion to rotate the map around the center.
• Double-tap on the map to zoom in and out of a map without using both your fingers. After you double-tap, scroll up or down to look around the map.

Use these advanced maneuvers to become a power user of Google Maps!

Here’s a screenshot of the pinch to zoom in feature on Google Maps:

Key Takeaways

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• Access Google Maps offline when you are in areas with a poor data signal.
• Measure distance between points and plot multiple stops on a trip.
• Use the power of voice commands to do more and prevent distractions while driving.
• Remember where you parked in a busy place. 
• Share your current live location with others while on the move. 
• Avoid tolls on highways by toggling them off or finding the shortest routes between two points.
• Save your favorite and most visited locations with your custom names for quick recall and use in voice commands.
• Use advanced hand gestures to do more with one hand and prevent distractions while driving.