Following a public unveiling of a major Google Maps overhaul at May's Google I/O as well as other reports of Google Maps for Android getting improvements in the Play Store late Tuesday Night, the company has made an official announcement for the improved Google Maps app early Wednesday morning.
According to CNET, the new application does a lot more than just tell the user where he or she is in the world and help him or her plan a rout. The service combines these qualities with real-world information that people could find useful in their everyday lives.
Restaurant reviews from Zagat work a lot like competing app Yelp. Users can look at customer ratings and reviews, as well as leave their own, directly within the app when they look up a restaurant.
The "Explore" feature is very similar to features available on Foursquare. It provides an entirely touch-based way for users to explore a location. It focuses on five categories: eat, shop, drink, sleep and play. This allows people to learn more about urban locations like top restaurants, bars, hotels and other fun activities. Who would have thought Google Maps would become the new go-to app for date night?
Another new feature for the Android app, that already existed on the iOS app, is the ability to shake the phone to open the feedback menu to report map errors simply by shaking your phone.
Other new features include updates to live-traffic information, improvements to Street View and the ability to save map information for offline mode. The company has also announced that it will be integrating some Waze features soon.
For every advancement there must come some sacrifice, Google Maps' Latitude and check-ins will be removed from older versions of Google Maps starting August 9 and are no longer part of the new Google Maps app for Android or the anticipated update to iOS.
Google would not release any information for the launch date of the iOS app. Instead it simply teased that it was "coming soon" for Apple's mobile devices.
