14 DAY TRIAL // Google Maps is getting major design update, as the company is preparing to make the experience more user-friendly and consistent across the environment.
Google Maps is one of the oldest apps for Android, and it’s been evolving for a long time. In fact, it’s always getting updates, but they are usually small ones and they deal mostly with bug fixes.
Now Google is looking to greatly improve the functionality of the application by adding a number of features that should make it more appealing, and much easier to use. It might not seem like it, but the truth is that Google Maps is long overdue for an overhaul.
Making Google Maps more attractive
While the general design of the application won’t change all that much, it’s safe to say that it’s going to become much more helpful. All of the aspects, including driving, navigation, transit, and exploration are going to benefit from the new color scheme and new icons that should makes it much simple to identify the points of interest.
Furthermore, the new colors that are being used will be much more consistent. For example, points of interest regarding tourism are now greed, restaurants and coffee shops are orange, and so on.
“Places like a cafe, church, museum or hospital will have a designated color and icon, so that it’s easy to find that type of destination on the map. For example, if you’re in a new neighborhood and searching for a coffee shop, you could open the map to find the nearest orange icon (which is the color for Food & Drink spots),” wrote the developers.
While all of these changes are available primarily for the Google Maps application, it’s expected that the entire ecosystem will adapts them, and that means Assistant, Search, Earth, and Android Auto.
Soon after that, the Google Maps API that’s use by other companies, such as Waze for example, will also be able to make use of the new features. Expect to see the changes implemented in the coming weeks, across all linked apps.
