Google Introduces Photorealistic View In Maps

Google has introduced a few new features to its Maps app that will be helpful when planning a trip or scouting for the best tourist attractions. The first is the introduced photorealistic aerial views of nearly 100 of the most popular landmarks in the world. They are from cities such as Barcelona, London, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo.

It’s part of Google’s Immersive View project, where it wants to infuse a sense of realism to how Google Maps displays content. The feature pairs AI technology with billions of high-definition Street View, satellite and aerial imagery.

Landmarks like the Empire State Building in New York as well as others are displayed as though you were looking right at them. Using this information, you can decide whether to actually visit it or choose to go somewhere else. If you’d like to see this type of aerial view, look for a landmark in Google Maps and navigate to the Photos section.

Though not as exciting as aerial view, Google has also included a new location sharing notifications feature that informs you if someone you know has arrived or left a place. Now, these notifications can only be set for someone who has already chosen to share said data with you.

Google Maps will, from time to time, inform them via push notification and email that they are still sharing their location data with you. It’s a way to ensure that users get to keep their privacy and revoke location sharing permissions as and when needed.

Once someone has chosen to share a location with you, the Google Maps app will let you know once they have arrived or left a location where you’ve planned on meeting each other. This is also useful when trying to track someone who gets separated from the group or inform friends or loved ones once you’ve safely returned from a hike or a similar activity.

Aerial views of landmarks and locations sharing notifications are available to use with Google Maps on Android, iOS and web browsers meant for desktop computers.