OK, but what about dark mode? –
There’s a new icon, new tabs, and the death of the hamburger button.
Left: the new Google Maps logo. Right: the old logo.
The new logo loosely follows Google’s new icon style, which is slowly creeping across the app lineup.
Here’s the “new” Google Maps. There are two new tabs at the bottom and “For You” was renamed to “Updates.” Also the hamburger button is dead.
Here are the two new tabs. Neither of these sections are new; they’re just tab buttons now.
Google Maps is turning this year, and Google is celebrating with a new icon and a few UI tweaks.
First, the Google Maps icon is no longer, well, (a map) and is now a multi-colored map pin. Like all of Google’s other recent icons, Maps’ icon follows a formula of outfitting a simple shape or letter with the colors red, blue, green, and yellow, and calling it a day. You can expect this new icon to pop up on your phone sometime soon.
The bottom tab navigation is going to switch from three tabs to five, with new tabs for “Saved” (Saved places ), “Contribute,” and “Updates.” None of these sections really represent new features, they just used to live in the left-side navigation drawer and now they have top-level access via the tab bar. Speaking of the left-side navigation drawer, the hamburger button that used to open it is dead. Presumably, the settings and other miscellaneous menu options will live under the account switcher, accessible via your profile picture on the right side of the search bar. Crowdsourcing has always been a major source of information for Google Maps, and soon Google says it will start surfacing information based on surveys that past Google Maps users have filled out. Things like the temperature of a mass transit car, accessibility, and the security level will soon be surfaced when you’re planning your travels.
Google’s last update concerns the company augmented reality ” Live View “mode in Maps. Instead of unreliable smartphone compass hardware, Live View cross-references your camera feed with Street View imagery to figure out the direction you’re facing. The feature is meant to help with walking navigation in big cities, where getting that first turn right can often be a challenge. Live View works, but location compatibility is currently extremely limited right now. Google says it will be “expanding Live View and testing new capabilities” over the coming months but does not provide any detail on what, exactly, that means.
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