Whenever I need to head toward an unfamiliar place, I reach out to Google Maps. It finds me my searched location, gives me directions and helps me explore and navigate the world around me. Google Maps has been so handy to us since its launch in 2005.

Users of Google Maps definitely know that one can rely on Google Maps for their everyday travelling. Imagining the primitive days on earth without it; nearly seems useable. Google Maps is full of hidden navigation, geospatial search, and customization tools. Below, let’s uncover the useful Google Maps features.

Useful Google Maps Features

1. Adding Music

Many of us indeed use google maps for navigations and finding directions. And the majestic google maps have added lots of features that make your user experience even more fun and better. The built-in music playback controls let you listen to the music while navigating. Google Maps supports popular music streaming services including Apple Music, Spotify, and Google Play Music.

How to add Music controls to Google Maps?

To add music, make sure that your google map is updated to the latest version. Then,

1. Open Google Maps logged in with your Google account.
2. Tap on your profile and open the settings.
3. In the settings, find the navigation settings. Then scroll below to find the “Show Media Playback Controls”.
4. Next, tap on the Default media app, select Spotify or any available music player.
5. After selecting your favoured media streaming app, tap on Next and tap OK to confirm the setting.

2. Go Incognito

While being surprised at the biggest updated features, we often miss the convenient small features. If you’re unwilling to have your google maps activity tracked, then you can possibly use the famous incognito feature. It lets you maintain your privacy of location history and notifications. To enable this feature, all you need to do is;

How to turn on Incognito Mode in Google Maps?

1. Open your Google Maps app.
2. You’ll need to tap on your profile at the top right.
3. The first option you’ll see is to Turn on the Incognito Mode. Turn it on or off when you require.

3. Hands-free with Google Assistant

The integration between Google maps and the very handy Google Assistance provides rich voice controls for Google Maps. Google Maps has a whole series of helpful voice commands that’ll work whenever you’re actively navigating. If you’re driving or navigating, ask it questions and tell it to do things in Google Maps so you can focus on the road.

How to go Hands-Free with Google Maps?

1. First, set up your Google Assistance by going into your phone’s settings.
2. Then open google maps for navigation or just say “OK Google”.
3. In navigation mode, say “Ok Google” or tap the Assistant microphone Mic.
4. Ask the Assistance to help you with places or directions.

You can ask things such as:

“What road is this?”
“Find restaurants”
“Navigate home”
“What’s my destination?” or “How far is my destination?”
“Exit navigation” and more.

4. Share your location, EVEN AS YOU MOVE

Travelling somewhere unknown? You might want your close ones to know where you’ve reached. Thus, Google Maps is there letting you share your location and let your close one know where you are. You can choose who can find your location and how long you want to share your location. You can share location, direction or even a map. Here’s how you can do it:

How to Share your Location via Google Maps?

1. Firstly, set your location on the Google Map. You’ll find a blue dot marked as your location.
2. Then, click on that blue dot to discover the option of sharing your location.
3. Tap on it and select the person you want to share your location with. You can also customize how long you want to share your location.
4. You’ll find the contact you’ve shared your location with at the bottom of your screen.
5. Tapping on it, you can turn off the location sharing anytime you wish to.

5. Time Travel

Google Maps has added a time machine feature to Street View for desktop, which lets you take a virtual trip down memory lane to see how it existed at various points in the past. This one only works from the desktop site. There’s a lot you can explore with this feature. Google Maps provides a fun way to take a trip down memory lane. Here’s how you can time travel with Google Maps.

How to Time Travel with Google Maps?

1. At Google Maps, pick a destination.
2. There’s a little yellow guy known as Pegman at the lower right corner of your screen. Drag him up with your mouse and drop him wherever you want to go.
   
3. At the top left of the screen, you’ll see a clock icon. Tapping on it, you’ll be able to drag a slider back through time to see 360-degree views from previous years.
4. The feature isn’t available for all the locations but a pretty lot of places have a lot to show you over the years.

 

Hence, Google Maps has these and much more cool features that give you an amazing Google Maps experience. What feature do you find the most useful on Google Maps?