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, and add the dish you asked for to your cart so you can review it and check out.
Food ordering is rolling out today with partners like Square and Toast, with Uber Eats integration coming soon.
Ask Maps can also look up information about hotels and events when you're traveling, comparing prices in real time and checking availability for a hotel, then offering up ideas on things to do nearby.
Google says its live updates are coming to transit. A transit widget in Ask Maps offers up-to-the-minute information about delays for bus, train, subway, and ferry rides.
A new Personal Intelligence option in Ask Maps allows the feature to connect to Gmail to factor in upcoming plans without needing specific instruction. Connecting to Gmail is opt-in and off by default. Ask Maps can also remember prior conversations for context if history settings are turned on.
There's a conversational edits option for suggesting new details for the Ask Maps feature. You can tell Maps about an insider tip and Ask Maps will offer the information to others in the community.
Ask Maps is also expanding to Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, and Mexico, along with over 150 countries and territories in English.
The live transit widget, personalized responses, and conversation memory are rolling out everywhere Ask Maps is available. Food ordering, discovering hotels and events, and conversational contributions are rolling out in the U.S., with more countries set to be added later.
Ask Maps is available on the web and in the Google Maps app for iOS.
