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xiii handy hidden tricks for Google Maps on Android

Take reward of all Maps has to offer past tapping into these easily disregarded features and options.

Who doesn't love Google Maps? The Maps Android app helps those of u.s. with oatmeal for brains detect our way anywhere, without having to fire whatsoever neurons or exercise any synapses. Information technology even helps usa find places to pick upwards tasty cuisine — like, uh, oatmeal (yum!).

But there's much more to Google Maps than meets the center — and odds are, you aren't taking advantage of at least a few handy hidden features lurking within the Maps Android app. With Android 12 right effectually the corner and more shiny new Android goodies showing up by the day, I thought it'd exist a fine time to dive deep into this always-evolving Android anchor and think through some of its more off-the-beaten-path advanced options.

Take a few minutes to explore these possibilities the side by side time you lot've got Maps pulled upwards on your phone, and get prepare to experience the earth around you in a whole new way.

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1. Automated trip organisation

Fashion dorsum in 2016, Google came out with an awesomely clever app called Trips. Trips tapped into all the info already in your inbox and automatically created impressively organized, easy-to-manage bundles of plans from your incoming itineraries and confirmations. It. Was. Spectacular.

But and so, well, Google Googled. After a few brusque years, the company killed off Trips and left those of us who'd come to rely on its smarts stranded, without whatsoever comparable replacement.

Or and then it seemed. Fast-forward to today, and much of Trips' planning intelligence has quietly made its fashion into the chief Maps app. You lot just practically demand a map to find information technology.

And so hither'south the secret: Open up the Maps app on Android, tap the Saved tab at the bottom, and and then scroll down and expect for the circular Reservations push. Tap that, and whatever flights, car rentals, eatery reservations, or other travel-related plans yous've got will bear witness up in an organized list — culled straight from the confirmations in your Gmail inbox as well as your Google Calendar.

Want to expect back on past adventures? You've got it: Just tap your profile picture in Maps' upper-right corner, then select "Your Timeline" from the menu that comes up and look for the word "Trips" on the bar at the top of the screen. There, in that tucked-abroad spot no sane person would always get around to finding, you'll see detailed info nearly whatever wanderings Google has compiled over the years.

Google Maps Android: Trips JR

And just a reminder: If y'all'd rathernot have this info pulled over from other Google services into the Maps app, yous can disable the feature or restrict how far back information technology goes past turning off or limiting Web & App Activity in your Google privacy settings.

ii. Instant driving way

Google Maps and Assistant at present work together to give you a driving mode that puts common mid-trip functions front and middle and makes 'em as easy as can exist to activate whilst on the route.

By default, that manner pops upward whenever you actively start a new Maps navigation. Only with a couple quick tweaks, yous tin make it fifty-fiftymore useful past telling it to start upwardly on its own whenever you connect to your vehicle'due south Bluetooth organisation — or fifty-fifty just whenever it detects that you're driving.

To observe those options, tap your contour moving picture in the upper-right corner of the Maps Android app, then select "Settings" followed by "Navigation settings" and and so "Google Assistant settings" (whew!).

Now, on the screen that comes up next, look at the lines labeled "When connected to car's Bluetooth" and "When driving is detected." In the first case, y'all tin can ask Maps to burn up driving manner instantly as presently as a connection is made —or you can instruct it to popular up a prompt and ask you if y'all desire that to happen every time such a connection is established. On the auto-driving detection, the popular-up prompt is your only selection beyond the default "do nothing" behavior.

Google Maps Android: Driving mode JR

And one more tip to keep in mind: If you lot e'er desire to summon driving fashion on your ain, you tin can always activate Assistant (by proverb "Hey Google" or using any Assistant-summoning command you lot prefer) and then proverb "driving fashion" — or you tin can give yourself a one-touch push button for launching the mode by long-pressing on your domicile screen, selecting "Widgets," so scrolling down to the Maps section and touching and property the "Driving Mode" widget to place it anywhere on your home screen.

3. Pinned places

Find yourself meandering to the same places or making the same extended drives ofttimes? Save yourself some time past tapping into Maps' hands overlooked trip pinning system. It lets yous save common trips and so pull 'em up speedily for on-demand, hassle-gratis navigation whenever you need it.

Y'all can pin a trip from a couple dissimilar places within the Android Maps app:

  • When yous're searching for a specific destination within the Maps app, expect for the Pin command at the lesser of the screen later y'all've tapped the push button to bring up directions.
  • From the main Maps screen, tap the Go tab at the lesser and so wait at the app's suggested places based on your contempo activity. If you meet the trip you lot want in that location, tap the pushpin icon aslope it to pin it.

Whichever way you go, annihilation you've pinned will always appear at the top of the app's Go tab from then on out — and starting a new navigation to that destination will merely exist ane more tap from there.

4. Location saving

Recollect manner back in the early days of Android when one of the nigh pop apps was a simple lilliputian tool chosen Car Locator? No? Well, I practise — but then again, I've been writing nigh Android for approximately 973 years now. (Related: I may or may non be a wise, if somewhat shriveled, tortoise elder.)

These days, that app is long gone — but little-known fact: Maps itself tin can exercise exactly what it used to do and save any location you want, so help you mosey back to it afterwards.

The next time your noggin needs a retention aide, but open upward Maps and tap the blue dot that represents your current location. That'll pull up a large ol' honkin menu, within which you'll see the incredibly useful "Save parking" option. (And don't let yourself be fooled: While its official purpose may revolve around parking, you tin can but as hands use the feature to saveany kind of location for whatever reason you want.)

Tap that selection, and that's information technology: Your current location will be burned into Maps' memory. If you want to add extra info to help your own mushy mammal brain later, swipe up on the bar that says "Parking location" at the bottom of the screen. You tin can then enter notes about your saved location (what level you parked on, how many oatmeal-serving establishments were in the vicinity, and so on), attach photos (you making silly faces in front of various passersby, etc), and create an alert to remind you about the location after a sure corporeality of fourth dimension has elapsed.

Google Maps Android: Save parking JR

When y'all're set up to get back to your car — or whatever sort of spot you've saved — all y'all've gotta practice is tap that aforementioned "Parking location" bar at the bottom of the Maps app or look for the "Parking location" notification from anywhere in your phone.

v. Location sharing

Adjacent upward: Help someone find you — or mayhap just give 'em an update on your whereabouts and progress — by tapping the blue location dot within the main Maps screen and and so selecting "Share location" from the menu that comes upwards.

That'll let yous give anyone a link to follow your location in existent-fourth dimension on a map for a specific amount of time or until you turn the characteristic off. Yous can even axle the link direct into another app or service on your phone to get it wherever you demand.

half-dozen. Incognito mode

On your manner to a secret lair? Well, expect at you, Bruce Wayne. Pivot this bit of info to your amygdala: If you tap your profile pic in the Maps app so select "Turn on Incognito style," Maps volition temporarily stop saving your location and using it for any future purposes. And no i — non fifty-fifty Google — will know where y'all are.

Not to worry: Your underground'due south rubber with me.

vii. Location collections

One of the Android Maps app's virtually underappreciated features is its ability to allow you lot create collections of places and and so revisit 'em or share 'em with other human person-people later on. It's like a super-specific sort of bookmarking service that's all well-nigh locations and connected straight to your favorite navigation genie.

To accept advantage of the system, tap the Saved tab at the lesser of the Maps app, then wait for the section labeled "Your list." Tap the "New list" command within that area of the screen, and y'all can then give your fancy new listing a proper name and a description and decide whether you desire information technology to exist private, shared only with specific people, or public for anyone to find.

Google Maps Android: Collections JR

With shared lists, you lot can even opt to let other people edit and add their ain items into the mix — an piece of cake way to collaborate with colleagues, cousins, or chinchillas on a list of lustworthy lunch spots or places to terminate by on your side by side business organization outing.

8. In-app media controls

Why swipe around to control your music when you tin do it right from the primary Maps interface? Maps has the power to add audio controls directly into the app so you can see your currently playing tunes and shuffle around as needed within a prominently placed bar in the app'due south navigation surface area.

To get started, open up Maps' settings, select "Navigation settings," then tap "Assistant default media provider." Pick from one of the available options, and whatever service y'all choose volition prove up within your navigation interface and besides reply to any spoken commands issued to Assistant about sound playing.

9. Locked orientation

Sometimes, it seems like it'd be easier to understand a map if north were ever facing up. Well, good news, my fellow orientation-obsessed organism: You lot can actually tell Maps to go on a consequent, locked orientation with north at the top whenever it's navigating. Simply look in the "Navigation settings" department of the app'southward main settings and notice the pick labeled (rather appropriately) "Keep map north up." Activate its toggle and and so rest easy knowing you'll never need to practise that awkward caput-pivoting, trying-to-figure-out-which-style-you're-facing maneuver once again.

10. Permanent night mode

In that same "Navigation settings" section of Maps' settings lies an understated choice anyone with sensitive peepers will be pleased to uncover: the ability to set up Maps' color scheme into a permanent dark mode whenever navigation is active.

By default, Maps manages this setting on its own and switches between a light and dark scheme as information technology sees fit. If y'all'd rather avoid glary distractions all the time, look for the "Colour scheme" setting and switch it from "Automatic" to "Dark."

11. A quieter voice

I don't know about you, but I've lost count of the number of times I've had Maps navigation going and music playing from my phone at the same time — and and then jumped in my seat when that lovely navigation genie's voice cuts in and somehow seems seven,000 times louder than the song backside it. There's actually an easy fix for that, though: At the very top of the "Navigation settings" department of Maps' settings sits an selection called "Guidance volume." Try changing it to "Softer" — or "Louder," if you lot cartel! — and see how that suits your ears.

12. Specific restaurant suggestions

Browsing through the Maps app is an underrated way to find something tasty to eat, whether you lot're planning to become somewhere or place an order for delivery. But navigating your manner through the maze of culinary options in your area tin can get overwhelming fast, especially if you have a specific sort of nourishment in mind.

Well, take note, you hungry, hungry hamster: Afterward borer the "Restaurants" choice at the top of the main Maps screen, you can actually narrow downwardly the types of places that'll show up equally suggestions. Yous tin can pick from a sprawling range of variables, too — everything from the establishment'south hours, ratings, and whether it delivers to what kind of cuisine it serves. You tin fifty-fifty filter based on whether you've visited a place before and whether information technology's child-friendly, delivery-prepare, and even vegetarian-prepared.

The fox is to tap the footling control icon in the upper-left corner of the restaurant search screen, then simply get to town on selecting whatever filters seem right.

Google Maps Android: Restaurant filters JR

A delectable level of control, wouldn't ya say?

xiii. Voice commands

Last merely not to the lowest degree, you'd be forgiven for forgetting — or perhaps not e'er knowing — but Maps has its ain custom set of vox commands that work whenever y'all're in the midst of a navigation. All you've gotta exercise is say "Hey Google" or actuate Assistant in whatever manner you prefer, and then shout out the command in question.

And then buckle up — hither are some of the more intriguing possibilities:

  • "How'south traffic ahead?"
  • "How'south traffic abode?"
  • "Show the route overview."
  • "Show an alternate road."
  • "What'due south my ETA?"
  • "What road is this?"
  • "What's my next plough?"
  • "Navigate dwelling."
  • "Avoid tolls."
  • "Avoid highways."
  • "Find a gas station."
  • "Have me to All-time Buy."
  • "Find a eating house."
  • "Find me somewhere that serves oatmeal, gosh darn it."

That last one may or may not work, but hey — it'southward ever worth a shot.

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Contributing Editor JR Raphael serves upwardly tasty morsels about the human side of technology. Hungry for more than? Join him on Twitter or sign up for his weekly newsletter to get fresh tips and insight in your inbox every Friday.

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