A reliable sidekick for exploring new destinations, scoping out potential shops and restaurants and reading rave reviews, Google Maps is an essential tool for anyone looking for easy navigation on the go. And while you might be familiar with much of the app’s functionality, we’re hoping to introduce you to these five nifty features that could be a gamechanger for you and your clients.
Live View
Perfect for those who rely on landmarks and visuals to find their way, Google Maps’ “Live View” allows people to orient themselves using the power of augmented reality. Only accessible from “Walk” mode, upon activating Live View in the app, users will be prompted to utilize their camera to scan their surroundings. From here, Google can detect their location and instantly generate an interactive map that mirrors their real-life environment. But here’s the cool part: when travelers hold up their screen to start walking, their directions will appear atop renderings of nearby buildings and street signs, allowing them to refer to 3D arrows and the company’s iconic red location pin along the way.
Offline Maps
In today’s high-speed world, we rely greatly on a steady Internet connection to do, well, pretty much everything. However, when traveling to far-off places, spotty Wi-Fi signals and cellular dead zones are inevitable, rendering some of our most relied upon apps and navigation tools useless. But fret not, offline maps are here to ensure travelers get from point A to point B, even when Wi-Fi and mobile data is hard to come by. For the uninitiated, creating an offline map is easy, all you need to do is search for your destination in Google Maps, click your profile picture in the upper right-hand corner, select “Offline maps” and choose “Select your own map” to instantly download an offline map of the specified area. Best of all, when the time comes to use said map, essential navigation features like turn-by-turn directions, location search and route details are all still available, making it harder than ever to get lost while on the road.
Accessibility Info
Strollers, wheelchairs, walkers and more, millions of Americans rely on mobility aids to explore at home and afar every single day. Unfortunately, as people who depend on these devices know, not every business, restaurant or mode of transportation is equipped for easy access, resulting in some frustrating trial and error along the way. Helping to take the guesswork out of things is Google Maps’ “Accessible places” functionality, an option that, when toggled on, displays a wheelchair icon next to business listings to denote whether they have an accessible entrance. For even more accessibility deets, users can tap on a specific place and scroll down to see if it offers accessible seating, parking and a wheelchair-friendly restroom.
Location Sharing
A feature that’s especially handy for solo vacationers and adventurous travelers who might be heading off the beaten path, real-time location sharing is a fast and easy way for people to keep loved ones and trusted friends in the loop when away from home. And while, as a travel advisor, you always hope every vacation goes off without a hitch for your clients, a little extra peace of mind can go a long way, for both travelers and the people who care about them the most. To enable location sharing, users can open the Google Maps app on their phone, tap their profile picture to select “Location sharing” and choose “Share location.” From here, they will have the option to determine how long they want to share their location and with whom, making it easy to customize who sees what and when.
Business Identity Attributes
For many, finding and supporting members of their community is important, and this remains true while traveling. Vacationers hoping to support businesses that align with their identity will want to keep an eye out for what Google Maps calls “business identity attributes,” labels that appear alongside applicable business listings to denote specific business identities including “Disability-owned,” “Veteran-owned,” “Women-owned,” “LGBTQ+-owned,” “Asian-owned,” “Black-owned” and “Latino-owned.” To make finding these places even easier, travelers can directly plug any of the above identifiers into their search bar and instantly browse the results.
Orignally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of The Compass magazine
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