Google Maps Rolling Out These New Navigation Features This Week - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Google Maps Rolling Out These New Navigation Features This Week

by

Google Maps is rolling out several new features to iOS and Android users this week, focusing on improved navigation and travel planning tools.

google maps add stops
A new prominent "Add stops" button is being added alongside the Start button with the idea of simplifying route planning: It displays restaurants, gas stations, and points of interest along the way. This week's update also introduces weather disruption reporting, allowing drivers to mark and avoid hazards such as unplowed roads, flooding, or low visibility conditions.

In addition, arrival assistance is getting enhanced. Google Maps will now highlight nearby parking lots and prompt users to save their parking location. The app can then provide walking directions to the final destination using AR Live View navigation.

A more substantial navigation update is scheduled for next month, launching in over 30 metropolitan areas. This enhancement will provide clearer visualization of lanes, crosswalks, and road signs, with a blue line indicating the correct lane position during turns and merges.

google maps weather report 1
Looking further ahead, Google has announced plans to integrate its Gemini AI technology into Maps in the coming months. This feature will allow users to ask natural language questions about locations and receive curated recommendations based on data from over 250 million places worldwide. The AI implementation will also provide summarized reviews and detailed answers about specific venues.

Tag: Google Maps

Popular Stories

google ask maps

Google Maps Can Now Order Your Dinner and Track Your Train Delays

Thursday August 6, 2026 3:59 pm PDT by
Google today added new agentic capabilities to the Gemini-powered "Ask Maps" assistant in the Google Maps app. Ask Maps can complete multi-step tasks, such as ordering a meal for you on your way home. Google says you can simply say something like "order spicy pad kee mao with seafood for me to pick up on my way home," and Maps will find open restaurants along your route, let you pick one,...
Read Full Article • 45 comments
Four iPhone 18 Pro Colors Mock Feature

iPhone 18 Pro: Pre-Orders and Release Date

Thursday August 20, 2026 8:00 am PDT by
Apple has yet to reveal when the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Ultra will be announced and released, but the dates usually follow a familiar pattern. As usual, the iPhone event is expected to take place in the first half of September. Labor Day falls on September 7 this year. The last time the holiday was on that day was in 2020, but the iPhone event that year was delayed until October due to...
Read Full Article • 20 comments
macOS 27 next to MacBook Pro Running macOS 27

macOS Golden Gate Marks the End of an Era

Thursday August 20, 2026 2:19 pm PDT by
macOS 27 Golden Gate is not compatible with any Macs with Intel processors, marking the end of an era. The update, which is currently in beta ahead of a release later this year, is limited to Apple silicon Macs with an M1 chip or newer. Last year, Apple said that macOS 26 Tahoe would be the final macOS release compatible with Intel-based Macs, so this was an expected development. Intel...
Read Full Article

Top Rated Comments

I
icanhazmac
24 months ago
Here's a feature suggestion: Don't sell my location data to the entire planet.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
ch1ptune
24 months ago
Yikes. That UI is horrible. What a strange colour palette.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
O
orev
24 months ago

Even though these are good features, Google Maps is nothing more than my fail safe in case I can't find something on Apple Maps.
Which means Google Maps is the better product, if that's the one you go to when you need things to work correctly? Apple Maps has definitely gotten better, but this isn't really a good argument for it.



Here's a feature suggestion: Don't sell my location data to the entire planet.

In order to keep a minimum of privacy I cannot recommend Google Maps at all.
Your location data is pretty expensive compared to your what's app conversations...

The data economy is growing fast with AI.
Apps don't need to be Maps apps to be collecting and selling your location. All apps that display ads are collecting it through their ad servers. At least with a Maps app you're getting some value for yourself as well, instead of the company getting all the value.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
Schtibbie
24 months ago
The first company that puts out a maps app that allows you to select avoids like "no unprotected left turns across giant roads at a stopsign with no light", and "no turning left out of a parking lot across giant roads" (which really is a subset of the first), will win my vote. I swear to god Apple Maps is constantly thinking that holding up an entire parking lot full of traffic so that *I* can turn left is somehow a good idea.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
CarlJ
24 months ago

GM isn’t 100% for me. Local driving it doesn’t matter, but in unfamiliar territory I always cross check the navigation against a different source. YMMV.
Google Maps once told me to use any lane of the 6-lanes-each-way freeway I was currently on, to make an immediate U-turn.

Apple Maps was rushed out the door because (IIRC) Google wanted access to creepy amounts of information about people using the Maps app, when the contract came up for renegotiation. Since then, it has improved by several orders of magnitude. I think a lot of the people claiming that Apple Maps is bad and Google Maps is great... haven't really tried using Apple Maps in a very long time.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
falainber Avatar
falainber
24 months ago

I'm sorry but Google Maps is just so overly bloated at this point it makes it hard to use it as the only real thing I want to use it for. Getting directions.
What about hours of operations, parking, user reviews, links to business' web sites etc? You don't use any of it? Google Maps' ability to find the place you are interested in is priceless.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments