Google Maps unveils Ask Maps with Gemini AI in biggest navigation redesign in over a decade

Google Maps gets its biggest navigation redesign in a decade, plus more AI

Google Maps is one of the company's core products, which means it hasn't escaped the shift to Gemini. There will be more opportunities to converse with a robot in Google Maps starting today, but there's also a new navigation experience on the way. The revamped navigation isn't as explicitly focused on the AI revolution, but Google stresses Gemini is still key to making it work. The latest AI shift in Maps is called Ask Maps, and you can probably guess what it does just from its title. Ask Maps is a Gemini-powered conversational system that can plan trips and answer complex questions about locations across the app's millions of cataloged points of interest. The new chatbot will be accessible via a button up near the search bar. You can ask it anything you're likely to find in Google Maps without jumping into another app. You can ask for directions, of course, but it can also plan out road trips and vacations from a single prompt. Ask Maps works like a chatbot, so it accepts follow-up prompts to refine and expand on its suggestions. Google says Ask Maps accounts for your personal preferences using the data you already have in Maps. For example, it can factor in the route preferences you've set and the locations you've searched for or saved in lists. Since this is a mapping application, all the outputs make it easy to get directions or save locations in a list. Ask Maps is rolling out starting today in the US and India, but only in the Android and iOS apps. It will come to the web version of Maps later.

Google Maps Gets Chatty With a New Gemini-Powered Interface

There's a new button in Google Maps: "Ask Maps." Google started rolling out this new generative AI feature today, a conversational, in-app tool that combines data from Maps with a user experience similar to the company's Gemini chatbot. It's designed to answer questions about locations and schedule routes in the navigation app. This is part of Google's overall strategy of adding Gemini to all its products. (Like that Portlandia sketch where the duo visits a boutique and puts bird decals on everything in sight.) Earlier this week, Google added Gemini-powered tools to its Workspace suite, including Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. And weeks before, it debuted a way for Gemini to take control of select apps to run tasks, like booking an Uber. Ask Maps is first coming to Google Maps users in the US and India. This launch is limited to mobile devices, available on both Android and iOS, with a desktop version expected in the near future. You can't opt out of Ask Maps or hide it, just like many of the new AI features from Google. Ask Maps appears as the first tab under the search bar. When someone taps on it, Google provides personalized prompt suggestions. For example, someone living in San Francisco may be nudged to plan a drive out to Muir Woods, including a pit stop for breakfast burritos, or explore vintage store routes for shopping in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. It's designed to be utilized while planning road trips. In an example provided by Google, Ask Maps created a solid itinerary for a nature getaway traveling from the Grand Canyon to the nearby Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The chatbot compiled a three-day driving plan with multiple lookout points and other popular stops marked along the route. Ask Maps ended this output with a few tips for enjoying time at the dunes: "Rent a sandboard at the visitor center and grab some wax -- it's key for speed." The conversational feature is an example of Google leveraging the data it stores about users to offer personalized experiences. If Ask Maps logs that you're a vegetarian, it will reconfigure the restaurants included as part of the recommendations -- no House of Prime Rib for a date night in the city. The Gemini chatbot can now search through your inbox and files to find answers, and it's another example of Google's increasing focus on AI-powered customization.

Gemini Rolls Out Ask Maps to Make Google Maps More Interactive

Expertise Smart home | Smart security | Home tech | Energy savings | A/V Google is introducing a new Gemini AI feature to the Google Maps app on Thursday called Ask Maps. Described as a "conversational experience," the feature allows users to interact naturally with the app -- asking follow-up questions, rephrasing queries and exploring new prompts -- similar to Gemini for Home devices. While Google Maps has long offered route-based voice navigation, Ask Maps goes much deeper to answer questions about trip details and the surrounding area. In one case, Google suggests using Ask Maps to find a nearby charging station if your phone's battery is dying. In another, Ask Maps can be used to find a well-lit tennis court for evening play. The new feature also offers in-depth recommendations for stops and tips when visiting popular tourist destinations. Gemini will also learn from the information you have stored in Maps in the past, such as what kind of restaurants you like visiting. A Google representative didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. These conversational features have also moved into the more traditional Gemini commands. Once your app gets the update, expect directions to sound a bit more natural and flow with on-map highlights more readily. Google Maps is also enhancing your ability to find alternative routes in case of traffic issues and improving the experience when you reach a destination, like highlighting which side of a building the entrances are on. Ask Maps is rolling out to American and Indian users right now, with the enhanced Maps features set to expand to platforms like CarPlay and Android Auto in the coming months.

Google overhauls its Maps app, adding in more AI features to help people get around

Google Maps will depend more heavily on artificial intelligence to help people figure out where they want to go and the best way to get there as part of a major redesign unveiled on Thursday. The overhaul driven by Google's Gemini technology will introduce two AI features into a digital mapping service used by more than 2 billion people worldwide. One tool called Ask Maps will expand upon conversational abilities that Google brought to the service last November, giving suggestions to users looking for things such as nearby places to charge their devices, cafes with short lines or a detailed itinerary for a road trip involving several stops and excursions. Gemini's recommendations will draw upon a database spanning more than 300 million places and reviews from more than 500 million contributors that have been accumulated since Google Maps' debut more than 20 years ago. Google executives declined to answer a question about whether the company eventually plans to sell ads to boost businesses' chances of being displayed in Ask Maps' recommendations. Ask Maps initially will be available on Google Maps' mobile app for iPhones and Android software in the U.S. and India, before expanding to personal computers and other countries. In what Google executives are billing as the biggest change to the maps' driving directions, Gemini has also created a new tool dubbed Immersive Navigation that will present a three-dimensional perspective designed to give users a better grasp of where they are at any moment in time. The 3D renderings created by Gemini will include landmarks such as notable buildings, medians in the roads and other aspects of the terrain that drivers are seeing around them as they drive to help them get their bearings more quickly. Google believes its AI guardrails are now strong enough to prevent the Gemini technology underlying Immersive Navigation from fabricating bogus places to go, a malfunction known within the industry as a "hallucination." Immersive Navigation is also supposed to help Google Maps more clearly explain the pros and cons of different driving routes to the same recommendation, as well as point to the best places to park once a user arrives at a designated destination. The new AI-powered navigation will only be available in the U.S. initially, on Google Maps' mobile app for the iPhone and Android, as well as cars equipped with options to activate CarPlay and Android Auto. The increased reliance on AI in Google Maps follows the company's introduction of more Gemini technology to make two of its other most popular products -- Gmail and the Chrome web browser -- more proactive and helpful to their billions of users. The expansion underscores Google's confidence in the Gemini 3 model that the Mountain View, California, company released late last year as part of an intensifying battle for AI supremacy with up-and-coming rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

Google brings more AI to navigation with 'Ask Maps' feature that lets users ask complex questions

Google is adding its Gemini AI technology to a new feature in its maps app, as the company pushes its artificial intelligence tools deeper into its expansive product portfolio. The new button called "Ask Maps" will feature a chatbot that allows users to ask complex questions outside of the typical navigation topics, Miriam Daniel, a vice president at Google Maps, said in a blog post Thursday. Users can now ask questions like, "My phone is dying -- where can I charge it without having to wait in a long line for coffee?" or "Is there a public tennis court with lights on that I can play at tonight?" The results are personalized based on prior searches and saved trips in Google Maps, "making it easy to turn plans into action," the company said. "Google Maps is fundamentally changing what a map can do," the company said in the blog post. "By bringing together the world's freshest map with our most capable Gemini models, we're transforming exploration into a simple conversation and making driving more intuitive than ever with our biggest navigation upgrade in over a decade." Google is adding more AI to its maps service as part of a broader effort to differentiate Gemini from potential competition and to keep users on its products for longer. With more than 2 billion monthly users, Google Maps, which turned 20 last year, is the world's top navigation app. Ask Maps starts rolling out Thursday in the U.S. and India on Android and Apple's iOS, with desktop coming soon, the company said. In a briefing with reporters ahead of the announcement, Google staffers said the company isn't including ads in the feature but isn't ruling out the possibility for the future. "Right now, we are very focused on launching this for our users and providing a great experience," said Andrew Duchi, a director of product management at Google. Google Maps makes money primarily by selling advertising and promoted placements to businesses. It also charges companies for access to its Maps APIs and location data. Google doesn't break out revenue from maps, which has historically been one of the search giant's most under-monetized products, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak told CNBC. The unit has been trying to increase revenue, including by licensing new sets of mapping data for companies to use as they build products around renewable energy.

Google Maps brings a 3D map to your driving directions

In recent weeks, Google has been busy adding AI features to all of its most popular apps. Following Gmail and Chrome, Maps is now the latest service to get a Gemini makeover, with a redesign of the driving experience headlining the update. Google is billing the new "Immersive Navigation" mode as the most significant update to driving directions in Maps in about a decade. Now instead of displaying a 2D map of the area around your car, Maps will render the surroundings in 3D. Google believes this transformation will make it easier for drivers to orient themselves, with the new view giving greater depth to nearby landmarks like buildings and overpasses. Behind the scenes, the company's Gemini models power the experience, deciding how to render elements to remove distractions. Pulling information from Google's Street View database and aerial photos, Google says its models are also smart enough to know when to highlight road elements like crosswalks, traffic lights and stop signs to ensure you don't miss an off ramp or important turn. At the same time, Google has made the voice guidance in Maps sound more natural. For instance, when you're driving along the highway, looking for where you need to get off, the voice assistant will say something along the lines of "go past this exit and take the next one." I imagine this will be especially helpful when driving in a foreign country with unfamiliar road names. The new intelligence Google has built into the redesigned navigation experience extends to alternative routes. Now, when the app suggests taking a different way of getting somewhere, it will detail the associated tradeoffs with that route. For example, it might tell you it might take longer to travel but you'll encounter less traffic along the way. Before you start your journey, Maps will now also provide a Street View preview of your destination and recommend where to park. This being a new release in Google's self-proclaimed Gemini era, the company has naturally found a way to add its chatbot to Maps. Inside the app, you'll find a new icon labelled Ask Maps. Tap the icon, write a natural language prompt and Gemini will use all the information contained within Maps to craft a response. Google is pitching the feature as a way to get information no traditional map can provide. For example, you could ask Gemini to find you a place where you can charge your phone and grab a cup of coffee, all without having to wait a long time in line. Google suggests finding the answer to a specific question like that would have previously required sifting through countless reviews. Not so anymore. The results Gemini produces through Ask Maps will contain personalized results based on places you searched for and saved in the past. You can also act on any recommendations Gemini surfaces, making it easy to book restaurants, save locations and more. Google is starting to roll out the new immersive driving experience today in the US, with availability to expand over the coming months to Android and iOS devices, as well as CarPlay, Android Auto and cars with Google built-in. Ask Maps, meanwhile, is rolling out to Android and iOS devices in the US and India, with desktop support coming soon.

Google Maps just got the 'biggest navigation upgrade in over a decade' -- Ask Maps, Immersive Navigation and more

Google Maps is changing the way it looks and how it interacts with you Last year saw Google roll out Gemini AI to a bunch of new places, including Google Maps, offering a more conversational assistant while you navigate -- among other things. The plans don't stop there, though, since Google just announced a bunch more Gemini features for Google Maps. In fact, Google claims that this will make the app more intuitive, and marks its "biggest navigation upgrade in over a decade." The first big change is a conversational feature called "Ask Maps", which is designed to let you ask Google Maps more complicated questions that it never could have handled before. The idea is that this enhances the discovery experience in a way that's faster and more convenient for you, since you don't have to go sifting through reviews or do your own research to find things out. Examples offered by Google include declaring that your phone is dying, and you need to find a place to "charge it without having to wait in a long line for coffee." Or, something a little simpler, like asking about public tennis courts that have lights and are available to use tonight. Anything you ask about will be answered conversationally, just like any other Gemini feature, alongside a customized map that helps you pick out your different options. Responses will include clear directions and ETAs, as well as insider tips from other Maps users. The results are also personalized based on what Maps already knows about you -- meaning Ask Maps shouldn't offer anything outrageously unsuitable. So, if you only eat at vegan restaurants, it's not going to direct you to a steakhouse, and things like that. Ask Maps is rolling out to Android and iOS in both the U.S. and India right now. Immersive Navigation Next up is Immersive Navigation, which promises a "complete transformation of the navigation experience" thanks to new visuals and more intuitive directions. This is supposed to help you stay focused as you're driving, while still being informed about what's going on around you. Google Maps is going to change to offer a 3D view of the world around the road, such as buildings and overpasses, while highlighting the crucial road details ahead of you -- including lanes, crosswalks, traffic lights and stop signs. Those buildings are transparent too, so they shouldn't get in the way of the actual navigation. Gemini actually powers this new "spatial understanding" of your route, as Google is calling it. Basing its information on Street View and aerial photos to make Google Maps more visually appealing and informative. But there's more to this than just looks, according to Google. You'll now be able to see more of your route, with smart zooms and transparent buildings helping to highlight difficult areas in advance. Voice guidance has also been updated to be a little more natural, rather than the flat, robotic GPS voices we've been hearing for the past 20+ years, and will highlight various visual cues to help you prepare for the next stage of navigation. Google Maps will also ensure you know all the pros and cons of alternate routes before you take them. So if there's a different route with less traffic, but more physical distance involved, you can decide whether that's worthwhile. The same goes for any faster routes that may have things like tolls. Other useful features coming as part of this update include real-time disruption alerts on your route, and the ability to preview your destination with Google Street View. Part of that also includes Maps highlighting building entrances, nearby parking and the side of the street you'll need to be on. Immersive Navigation starts rolling out to users in the U.S., including those with iOS, Android, CarPlay, Android Auto and cars with Google built-in. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.

Google overhauls its Maps app, adding in more AI features to help people get around

Google Maps will depend more heavily on artificial intelligence to help people figure out where they want to go and the best way to get there as part of a major redesign unveiled on Thursday. The overhaul driven by Google's Gemini technology will introduce two AI features into a digital mapping service used by more than 2 billion people worldwide. One tool called Ask Maps will expand upon conversational abilities that Google brought to the service last November, giving suggestions to users looking for things such as nearby places to charge their devices, cafes with short lines or a detailed itinerary for a road trip involving several stops and excursions. Gemini's recommendations will draw upon a database spanning more than 300 million places and reviews from more than 500 million contributors that have been accumulated since Google Maps' debut more than 20 years ago. Google executives declined to answer a question about whether the company eventually plans to sell ads to boost businesses' chances of being displayed in Ask Maps' recommendations. Ask Maps initially will be available on Google Maps' mobile app for iPhones and Android software in the U.S. and India, before expanding to personal computers and other countries. In what Google executives are billing as the biggest change to the maps' driving directions, Gemini has also created a new tool dubbed Immersive Navigation that will present a three-dimensional perspective designed to give users a better grasp of where they are at any moment in time. The 3D renderings created by Gemini will include landmarks such as notable buildings, medians in the roads and other aspects of the terrain that drivers are seeing around them as they drive to help them get their bearings more quickly. Google believes its AI guardrails are now strong enough to prevent the Gemini technology underlying Immersive Navigation from fabricating bogus places to go, a malfunction known within the industry as a "hallucination." Immersive Navigation is also supposed to help Google Maps more clearly explain the pros and cons of different driving routes to the same recommendation, as well as point to the best places to park once a user arrives at a designated destination. The new AI-powered navigation will only be available in the U.S. initially, on Google Maps' mobile app for the iPhone and Android, as well as cars equipped with options to activate CarPlay and Android Auto. The increased reliance on AI in Google Maps follows the company's introduction of more Gemini technology to make two of its other most popular products -- Gmail and the Chrome web browser -- more proactive and helpful to their billions of users. The expansion underscores Google's confidence in the Gemini 3 model that the Mountain View, California, company released late last year as part of an intensifying battle for AI supremacy with up-and-coming rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

Google Overhauls Its Maps App, Adding in More AI Features to Help People Get Around

Google Maps will depend more heavily on artificial intelligence to help people figure out where they want to go and the best way to get there as part of a major redesign unveiled on Thursday. The overhaul driven by Google's Gemini technology will introduce two AI features into a digital mapping service used by more than 2 billion people worldwide. One tool called Ask Maps will expand upon conversational abilities that Google brought to the service last November, giving suggestions to users looking for things such as nearby places to charge their devices, cafes with short lines or a detailed itinerary for a road trip involving several stops and excursions. Gemini's recommendations will draw upon a database spanning more than 300 million places and reviews from more than 500 million contributors that have been accumulated since Google Maps' debut more than 20 years ago. Google executives declined to answer a question about whether the company eventually plans to sell ads to boost businesses' chances of being displayed in Ask Maps' recommendations. Ask Maps initially will be available on Google Maps' mobile app for iPhones and Android software in the U.S. and India, before expanding to personal computers and other countries. In what Google executives are billing as the biggest change to the maps' driving directions, Gemini has also created a new tool dubbed Immersive Navigation that will present a three-dimensional perspective designed to give users a better grasp of where they are at any moment in time. The 3D renderings created by Gemini will include landmarks such as notable buildings, medians in the roads and other aspects of the terrain that drivers are seeing around them as they drive to help them get their bearings more quickly. Google believes its AI guardrails are now strong enough to prevent the Gemini technology underlying Immersive Navigation from fabricating bogus places to go, a malfunction known within the industry as a "hallucination." Immersive Navigation is also supposed to help Google Maps more clearly explain the pros and cons of different driving routes to the same recommendation, as well as point to the best places to park once a user arrives at a designated destination. The new AI-powered navigation will only be available in the U.S. initially, on Google Maps' mobile app for the iPhone and Android, as well as cars equipped with options to activate CarPlay and Android Auto. The increased reliance on AI in Google Maps follows the company's introduction of more Gemini technology to make two of its other most popular products -- Gmail and the Chrome web browser -- more proactive and helpful to their billions of users. The expansion underscores Google's confidence in the Gemini 3 model that the Mountain View, California, company released late last year as part of an intensifying battle for AI supremacy with up-and-coming rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

Google overhauls its Maps app, adding in more AI features to help people get around

Google Maps is getting a big AI upgrade. New features powered by Gemini will help users find places and plan trips. A tool called Ask Maps will offer personalized suggestions. Immersive Navigation will provide a 3D view of routes. These AI enhancements aim to make navigating easier for billions of users worldwide. Google Maps will depend more heavily on artificial intelligence to help people figure out where they want to go and the best way to get there as part of a major redesign unveiled on Thursday. The overhaul driven by Google's Gemini technology will introduce two AI features into a digital mapping service used by more than 2 billion people worldwide. One tool called Ask Maps will expand upon conversational abilities that Google brought to the service last November, giving suggestions to users looking for things such as nearby places to charge their devices, cafes with short lines or a detailed itinerary for a road trip involving several stops and excursions. Gemini's recommendations will draw upon a database spanning more than 300 million places and reviews from more than 500 million contributors that have been accumulated since Google Maps' debut more than 20 years ago. Google executives declined to answer a question about whether the company eventually plans to sell ads to boost businesses' chances of being displayed in Ask Maps' recommendations. Ask Maps initially will be available on Google Maps' mobile app for iPhones and Android software in the U.S. and India, before expanding to personal computers and other countries. In what Google executives are billing as the biggest change to the maps' driving directions, Gemini has also created a new tool dubbed Immersive Navigation that will present a three-dimensional perspective designed to give users a better grasp of where they are at any moment in time. The 3D renderings created by Gemini will include landmarks such as notable buildings, medians in the roads and other aspects of the terrain that drivers are seeing around them as they drive to help them get their bearings more quickly. Google believes its AI guardrails are now strong enough to prevent the Gemini technology underlying Immersive Navigation from fabricating bogus places to go, a malfunction known within the industry as a "hallucination." Immersive Navigation is also supposed to help Google Maps more clearly explain the pros and cons of different driving routes to the same recommendation, as well as point to the best places to park once a user arrives at a designated destination. The new AI-powered navigation will only be available in the U.S. initially, on Google Maps' mobile app for the iPhone and Android, as well as cars equipped with options to activate CarPlay and Android Auto. The increased reliance on AI in Google Maps follows the company's introduction of more Gemini technology to make two of its other most popular products - Gmail and the Chrome web browser - more proactive and helpful to their billions of users. The expansion underscores Google's confidence in the Gemini 3 model that the Mountain View, California, company released late last year as part of an intensifying battle for AI supremacy with up-and-coming rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

Google overhauls its Maps app, adding in more AI features to help people get around

Google Maps will depend more heavily on artificial intelligence to help people figure out where they want to go and the best way to get there as part of a major redesign unveiled on Thursday. The overhaul driven by Google's Gemini technology will introduce two AI features into a digital mapping service used by more than 2 billion people worldwide. One tool called Ask Maps will expand upon conversational abilities that Google brought to the service last November, giving suggestions to users looking for things such as nearby places to charge their devices, cafes with short lines or a detailed itinerary for a road trip involving several stops and excursions. Gemini's recommendations will draw upon a database spanning more than 300 million places and reviews from more than 500 million contributors that have been accumulated since Google Maps' debut more than 20 years ago. Google executives declined to answer a question about whether the company eventually plans to sell ads to boost businesses' chances of being displayed in Ask Maps' recommendations. Ask Maps initially will be available on Google Maps' mobile app for iPhones and Android software in the U.S. and India, before expanding to personal computers and other countries. In what Google executives are billing as the biggest change to the maps' driving directions, Gemini has also created a new tool dubbed Immersive Navigation that will present a three-dimensional perspective designed to give users a better grasp of where they are at any moment in time. The 3D renderings created by Gemini will include landmarks such as notable buildings, medians in the roads and other aspects of the terrain that drivers are seeing around them as they drive to help them get their bearings more quickly. Google believes its AI guardrails are now strong enough to prevent the Gemini technology underlying Immersive Navigation from fabricating bogus places to go, a malfunction known within the industry as a "hallucination." Immersive Navigation is also supposed to help Google Maps more clearly explain the pros and cons of different driving routes to the same recommendation, as well as point to the best places to park once a user arrives at a designated destination. The new AI-powered navigation will only be available in the U.S. initially, on Google Maps' mobile app for the iPhone and Android, as well as cars equipped with options to activate CarPlay and Android Auto. The increased reliance on AI in Google Maps follows the company's introduction of more Gemini technology to make two of its other most popular products -- Gmail and the Chrome web browser -- more proactive and helpful to their billions of users. The expansion underscores Google's confidence in the Gemini 3 model that the Mountain View, California, company released late last year as part of an intensifying battle for AI supremacy with up-and-coming rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.