Google Rolling Out New Features Across Its Platforms to Help Users Plan Vacations

Google announced the rollout of several new features across its platforms on Thursday. Some of these features are powered by artificial intelligence (AI), while others are regular updates and language expansions. The Mountain View-based tech giant said that all of these features are aimed at helping users better plan their vacations and trips. AI Overviews in Search, Maps, and Lens are getting upgrades focused on trip planning. Most notably, AI Overviews will soon be able to show trip ideas and information about smaller cities, regions, and entire countries.

Google Is Rolling Out New Features

In a blog post, the tech giant detailed the new features. As summer vacations in schools and colleges are approaching, Google is introducing new AI and non-AI features that will make the process of planning a trip easier and more seamless.

AI Overviews in Google Search will now show trip ideas for regions and countries. For instance, users can search “create an itinerary for Costa Rica with a focus on nature,” and the AI-powered snapshot feature will show photos and reviews from other users. An expandable map is also added to help users chart out their destinations. Once enough information is collected, users can export the recommendations via Docs or Gmail. It can also be saved as a custom list in Maps.

This feature is currently available in the English language in the US on both mobile and desktop. Since it is not an experimental feature, users do not have to sign up on Search Labs.

Google Maps is also getting an update that will allow users to look up places based on screenshots on their device. The company said people capture multiple screenshots while researching locations for a trip. These screenshots can now be quickly added to Maps, and Gemini will identify the places mentioned in the screenshot and show them on the map. From there, users can plan a route or explore other spots in the vicinity. This is rolling out to iOS users in the US, and currently only supports the English language. Android users will get it in the near future.

Apart from this, the tech giant is also allowing users to track hotel prices so that they can be aware of any price drops on their chosen dates and destinations. The feature can be accessed by tapping the price-tracking toggle below the search filters. Google will automatically send an email if the prices go down substantially for any of the listed hotels. This is rolling out globally on mobile and desktop browsers.

Gems, the Gemini-powered mini chatbots that can be customised for specific tasks, are now rolling out to all users for free. This means those on the free tier of Gemini can also access Gems to create custom chatbots. The company says users can create a custom trip planner chatbot to get a personalised itinerary via simple text prompts. Gems can be accessed from the “Gems manager” option on desktop. It is not available on the mobile app of Gemini.

Finally, the AI Overviews feature in Google Lens and Circle to Search is also being expanded to multiple new languages. The feature earlier supported just the English language, but soon it will also support Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish in countries where the AI feature is available.