Photo: Huawei
Huawei’s legal trouble – first in the United States and then pretty much elsewhere, except China – has pushed the company to develop its very own alternatives to the Google services it’s no longer allowed to use.
In other words, Huawei has built replacements for the Google apps that its phones have previously been pre-loaded with. Including Google Maps, that is.
Called Petal Maps, Huawei’s Google Maps alternative is a mapping platform that keeps evolving. This week, the Chinese company announced a new set of features that bring it closer to its rivals.
The biggest new feature is the support for AR-powered walking navigation. Petal Maps isn’t the first mapping application to get such capabilities, but Huawei claims its purpose was to resolve what it calls “the last kilometer issue.”
In other words, using your phone’s camera, Petal Maps can see where you are and overlay navigation guidance and information on your surroundings right on the screen. Therefore, the mobile phone display becomes a digital version of what you can see around, all upgraded with instructions on which way to go to reach a destination.
This feature is obviously available only for walking navigation.
Furthermore, Petal Maps has also been updated with new icons for favorite locations. The application already allowed users to mark certain locations as favorites, but beginning with this latest version, it also makes it possible to use various custom icons to better distinguish the places that have been added to this list.
Whether or not Petal Maps is indeed becoming a full replacement for Google Maps is something that only users can decide, but right now, it’s very clear Huawei has become very committed to improving its mapping platform with new-gen capabilities.
Petal Maps can be installed on both iPhone and Android, and it’s obviously available free of charge. It also offers driving navigation with the essential feature package, including voice search, lane guidance, and offline maps.
Called Petal Maps, Huawei’s Google Maps alternative is a mapping platform that keeps evolving. This week, the Chinese company announced a new set of features that bring it closer to its rivals.
The biggest new feature is the support for AR-powered walking navigation. Petal Maps isn’t the first mapping application to get such capabilities, but Huawei claims its purpose was to resolve what it calls “the last kilometer issue.”
In other words, using your phone’s camera, Petal Maps can see where you are and overlay navigation guidance and information on your surroundings right on the screen. Therefore, the mobile phone display becomes a digital version of what you can see around, all upgraded with instructions on which way to go to reach a destination.
This feature is obviously available only for walking navigation.
Furthermore, Petal Maps has also been updated with new icons for favorite locations. The application already allowed users to mark certain locations as favorites, but beginning with this latest version, it also makes it possible to use various custom icons to better distinguish the places that have been added to this list.
Whether or not Petal Maps is indeed becoming a full replacement for Google Maps is something that only users can decide, but right now, it’s very clear Huawei has become very committed to improving its mapping platform with new-gen capabilities.
Petal Maps can be installed on both iPhone and Android, and it’s obviously available free of charge. It also offers driving navigation with the essential feature package, including voice search, lane guidance, and offline maps.
Google News