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Google Improves Google Maps Navigation with More Detailed Guidance

Earlier this year, Apple announced a major Apple Maps update that brings stop light warnings, basically letting drivers know in advance they’re approaching a traffic light.
Google Maps getting more navigation improvements 4 photos
Photo: Google
New navigation app in CarPlay dashboardNew navigation app in CarPlay dashboardNew navigation app in CarPlay dashboard
It goes without saying this is a super-useful feature that’s currently available in the United States only, and while Apple is yet to confirm if it plans to release it elsewhere, many hope the same capabilities would make their way to Google Maps as well.

Certainly, this would be good news for millions of users, as Google Maps is the number one navigation app on mobile and on Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but for the time being, the search giant has remained completely tight-lipped on everything in this regard.

But what Google does, however, is further polish the voice guidance in Google Maps with more detailed instructions that you get when driving with navigation on the mobile device or on the car’s screen.

The company has tweaked the guidance to include placemarkers, albeit for now, this appears to be a limited experiment that’s not available for everyone. However, I’m seeing more people confirming this feature is now live on their devices – as a matter of fact, it’s not there for me and only the standard guidance seems to be offered on both iPhone and Android.

The updated guidance uses placemarkers to provide more accurate instructions, so for example, Google Maps could tell you to “turn right after McDonald’s” or “pass the Burger King on the left and then turn right.” At this point, it’s still not clear how these navigation instructions work and who gets them and who doesn’t, so we can only assume that Google is still experimenting with the change using a limited set of devices.

Of course, downloading the latest Google Maps version doesn’t mean you can enable this new experience, as it all seems to be powered by a server-side switch that Google itself activates for certain devices.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
Bogdan Popa profile photo

Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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