Google Maps is increasingly becoming a guide thanks to Google’s Gemini AI models. The AI assistant offers suggestions for places to visit, summarizes reviews, and answers your questions about locations from the Maps app on Android and iOS devices in the US, using insights from data on millions of locations worldwide. The update shows that Google’s infusion of Gemini AI into its services, especially on mobile devices, is accelerating as Google Maps sees more than 2 billion users per month and is updated 100 million times per day.
The most notable update combines Google Maps with Gemini’s flexible conversation interface to provide ideas for places to go based on your questions. You might ask about family-friendly places to visit on Saturdays, or cheap restaurants to eat near a concert you’re attending in the evening. Gemini sorts data from Google Maps to create recommendations.
The idea is that Gemini not only has a list of spots, but also AI-generated information that goes as deep as you want. Therefore, Gemini will also summarize reviews of locations you are interested in. Instead of scrolling through what people have said, you can see a Gemini-written composite highlighting elements, good and bad, that reviewers have highlighted. Google suggests this will speed up decision-making because it’s a more concise snapshot of how people feel about a place.
AI guidance
If the review summary isn’t enough, Google Maps also uses Gemini to answer your specific questions about a location. You can ask questions about any facet of a location, whether it’s factual, like the opening time, or more opinion-based, like what people think about the atmosphere. Gemini will go into the available information of the location and people’s reviews to answer. The answer will also use Gemini to make conversation, even adding extra details that you may not have asked for but are relevant to your initial question. According to Google, this function will not be limited to Maps for long.
“All of these features are made possible thanks to Gemini’s powerful creation, reasoning, and summarization capabilities – based on our trusted data from 250 million places around the world and insights from the Maps community,” Google wrote in a blog. after. “You’ll also see similar experiences on Search in the coming months, including AI-powered review summaries and the ability to ask detailed questions about places.”
The Gemini AI upgrades join several other new Google Maps tools now being rolled out. You can now use the app to view route stops before you leave, view detailed visual navigation guides for when an intersection has complex entrances and exits, and even see weather disruptions along your route as they develop. Google Maps also takes a more holistic approach to managing your arrival, showing parking spaces and walking routes to the entrance of your destination.