Google Maps Adds Aerial Views of Landmarks, Location Sharing Notifications, More Features

Google Maps is getting a bunch of new features. In order to provide a real-life look at the places, Google has added aerial and immersive views of around 100 of the world's most popular landmarks. With the latest update, Google Maps will also display detailed cycling routes for cyclists indicating the presence of stairs or steep hills in their direction. Further, the location sharing feature on the platform is getting improvements with the addition of arrival and departure notifications.

Alphabet-owned Google, via a blog post on Wednesday detailed all the new features that Google Maps is rolling out for users. To provide an enhanced digital model of buildings and streets around the world, the search giant has added photorealistic aerial views of nearly 100 popular landmarks in cities including Barcelona, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo right to Google Maps. The aerial views are a first step towards the launch of the immersive view feature the company showcased at the Google I/O event in May. It combines Street View and aerial images alongside advances in computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide the digital model of virtual maps.

Travellers can search for a landmark in Google Maps and head to the Photos section to see an aerial view of it. Apart from landmarks, Google Maps aims to provide a rich view of a neighbourhood, restaurant, or popular venues with an immersive view experience.

After the release of the lite navigation feature, Google is upgrading the cycling navigation with advanced features. It will show important details about the travel route including heavy car traffic and stairs or steep hills in the direction. Cyclists can also see a detailed breakdown of the route itself and they will be able to compare bike routes to prepare for the ride ahead. These will start rolling out in the coming weeks in the cities where Google Map's cycling directions are available.

Furthermore, Google is bringing notifications for arrival and departure for a particular location with the Google Map's location sharing feature. This would let you know when a friend arrives at or leaves a particular location. Notifications can only be set for someone who has already chosen to share their location with you. iPhone maker Apple is also offering a similar feature with the Find My app.

The new aerial views of landmarks and location sharing notifications are now rolling out globally on both Google Maps for Android and iOS.