The best Google Maps tricks

Google offers hundreds of services that, with time, have become omnipresent in our lives.

Among these services is Google Maps, the Google service that allows you plan routes, see the location of almost any other thing in the world, download maps, etc.

Some people may think that Google Maps is one of those apps that come installed by default but have never had to use while, for others, it’s an app that they use every day to move around the city.

Regardless of how familiarized you are with this app, there are probably a lot of things that you could do that you don’t know about and a lot of little tricks that will make Google Maps become one of your favorite apps.

Below, you will find the best tricks for Google Maps so that you could use this app to its fullest.

Keep reading!

Basic Use: Search for an address, plan a route and choose a means of transportation

For those people that have never used this app, Google Maps is a map service that allows you to look for addresses and plan routes in almost any part of the world.

This app comes installed by default on Android devices and it’s also available for iOS or in any web browser.

How to look up a place:

1. Open up the app or open a web browser, and go to maps.google.com.
2. On the search bar, type an address, a name or even something like “restaurants.”
3. Touch or click on the magnifying glass, and you’ll see the results on a map.
4. On the side menu you’ll see the different results, and you’ll be able to choose the most appropriate one. Clicking on that result will show you its location on a map, and it will show you more information on the left side menu. For instance, if you look up a business, you will see its exact address, its website, its phone number, its business hours, etc.

How to plan a route:

1. Open up the app, or open a web browser, and go to maps.google.com.
2. Type your destination on the search bar, and click or touch the magnifying glass.
3. Select the location among the options that show up and then click on the option “how to arrive.”
4. On the lateral menu, type the starting point. You could click on the arrows on the right of your destination and starting point to invert them. From a mobile device, you could type an address or select a location from a list.
5. You’ll see the icons of different means of transportation above the addresses that you typed. Choose one of them to see the suggested by the map, and you’ll be able to see to the left alternative routes and the duration of each one.
6. If you’re using a mobile device, touch the “begin” option to enter into navigation mode, where you will see your current location on a map, and addresses while you drive.

Customize your route:

Anyone that has used Google Maps knows how to look up addresses and plan routes, but even people that frequently use this app don’t know all of the options offered by Google Maps to customize their route:

• Add stops: Rarely, a route will have only one destination. You may have to pick someone up on the road, buy something, or go to someone else’s house before reaching your destination. And, instead of having to calculate each route separately, Google Maps allows you to add words on your route.

1. Open Google Maps on your mobile device.
2. Type your destination and touch the option “how to arrive”.
3. Touch the three dots on the upper right corner, and select “add stop.”

Google Maps allows you to add up to 9 stops in a single route. If you want to change the order of the stops, keep it pressed, and drag it to reorganize it.

• Avoid tolls and highways: besides adding stops, you could also ask Google Maps to calculate a route towards your destination that doesn’t include tolls nor highways.

1. Open Google Maps on your mobile device.
2. Type your destination and touch the option “how to reach.”
3. Touch the three dots on the upper right corner of the screen, and select “route options.”
4. Avoid “avoid tolls” or “avoid highways.”

• Save a route: If you don’t have enough data on your mobile device or, if you’re worried that you may end up without signal along the ride, you can look up the route whenever you get internet connection, and then save it for whenever you end up without a connection. Keep in mind that the route will only be stored on the device where you saved it.

1. Open Google Maps on your mobile device.
2. Type your destination, and touch the “how to arrive” option.
3. Choose your means of transportation on the upper part. Keep in mind that the option to store routes without a connection for public transportation is only allowed for some countries.
4. Touch the lower bar where you can see the time and the length of the route and touch the option “Save without a connection.”
5. To open a route while you aren’t connected to the internet, open the app and, in the lower part, touch “Saved Route Without Connection”.

• Share your route:

1. Open Google Maps on your mobile device.
2. Type your destination, and touch the “how to arrive” option.
3. Touch the three dots on the upper right corner, and select “share instruction.”
4. Choose the app that you want to use for sharing your app.

Look up for places near an address:

On the first section, we briefly explained to you how to look up an address using Google Maps. But, if you look up something like “restaurants” or “gas stations”, you will only see the results near your current location if you’re on a mobile device, or you’ll see all of the results if you make the search from a computer.

Google Maps allows you to focus in only one area, and it could be in any part of the world, regardless of your current location.

In a computer:

1. Go to maps.google.com, and look up an address or a specific place.
2. Select the most relevant result and, among the options that appear on the left side panel, you will see the option “in the surrounding area”.
3. In the upper bar, type the place that you want to search near the location that you typed. For instance, you could search for hotels or airports.
4. You could also simply dial on the upper search bar something like “McDonald’s near street 170” or “Café near X mall.”

On a mobile device:

1. Open Google Maps, and dial an address or a specific place.
2. After pinpointing the location on a map, type on the search bar what you want to find: restaurants, gas stations, etc.
3. See the results in the surrounding area on the first address that you typed.

Save your home and work address

Adding your home and work address will give you results that are tailored towards you while looking up addresses, planning routes, and receiving information about the traffic. For instance, you can receive notifications automatically about the traffic and the length of the journey between your house and your workplace.

Besides, you can look up places near any of the locations simply by typing on the search bar something like “McDonald’s near my house” or “restaurants near my workplace.”

1. Go to maps.google.com, or open the app, and make sure that you logged in with the right account in which you want to store your home and work address.
2. Click on the three lines on the upper left corner to open the menu, and click on “Your Places.”
3. Click on the option “Labeled,” and choose “particular address” or “work address.”
4. Type the address that you want to record, and click on “Save.”

Create your own map and save your favorite places:

Google Maps allows you to create your own maps with your own labels, routes and lines.

You could use them to create maps of your favorite restaurants in your city or to mark places which you would like to visit and plan your schedule. You can store those places on a map or on a list.

Crea tu propio mapa:

1. Go to maps.google.com or open the app, and click on the three dots on the upper left corner.
2. Click or touch the option “your places.”
3. From the tabs on the upper part of the screen, touch or click on “maps.”
4. On the lower part of the screen, click on “create map.”
5. Click on “Map without a name,” and type a name for your map.
6. Select one of these options to add information for your map:

• Add locations: to add a location on the map, search for it on the upper bar and, whenever it shows up on the map, click on “add to map.”
• Add bookmarks: to add a bookmark for a map, touch the option “add bookmark” under the search bar. On the app, touch the option add and select “add a new point.”
• Draw lines: Click on “Draw a line” under the search bar to label areas, routes, or lines in your map. On the app, click on Add, and select “add another line.”
• Add routes (available only through a web browser): Click on “Add indications” under the search bar and type a starting point and the address of the destination. The route will appear on the map.

Create a list of your favorite places:

If you don’t want to create a map, Google Maps offers you the option of organizing the places that you save as lists. You could, for instance, make a list of your favorite restaurants or of your friend’s houses. You could even share these lists with other people.

1. Go to maps.google.com, or open the app.
2. To save a place, search for it and select it from the results or on the map.
3. On the lateral or lower panel, click on it, and touch “Save.”
4. Choose a list from the options that appear, or select “New List.”
5. To see your lists and share them, touch the three dots on the upper left corner.
6. Touch or click on “My Places,” and then on “Saved.”
7. Touch the three dots to the right of one of the lists, and select “Share.”

Learn how to use Street View

Besides using traditional maps with a top view, Google Maps offers you the possibility of browsing through the streets and cities as if you were really there.

Google’s 360 cameras have travelled a big part of the world capturing real images of streets and roads in hundreds of countries. This functionality does not only allow you to see images and make journeys in almost any part of the world, but also allows you to familiarize yourself with the surroundings before going out (useful for anyone who doesn’t have any sense of direction!)

In a computer:

1. Go to maps.google.com, and search for the area that you wish to explore.
2. Click on the yellow stick man figure on the lower right corner of the screen. The streets will look blue.
3. Touch any part of the blue street, and the screen will change to show you the Street View mode.
4. Click and drag the cursor to change the camera and explore the surrounding areas.
5. To move around, use the arrows or click on the dot on the image that you want to zoom in.

On a mobile device:

1. Open up the app, and search for the area that you want to explore.
2. Search for a specific place, or put a marker in any part of the map.
3. In the lower part of the screen, touch the name of the place, and select the picture labeled as “Street View.”
4. Rotate your cell phone to enjoy a wider field of view.
5. Swipe your finger on the screen to change the camera view and explore the surrounding area.
6. To move around, touch the dot of the place that you wish to go or swipe your finger upwards or downwards on the blue line.

Time travel with Street View:

A lot of you probably knew that Street View existed and may have used it at least once, but few know that this functionality allows you to travel through time.

Street View started on 2007 and, since then, it has been updated many times, recording in the process changes on the cities throughout the years.

This functionality is only available in some specific points, but, when it works, it allows you to see, for instance, the entire construction process of the Freedom Tower in New York, or the reconstruction of the areas affected by the 2011tsunami in 2011 in Onagawa, Japan.

1. Go to maps.google.com in any web browser.
2. Search for a city, area, or specific address, and click on the yellow stick man figure on the lower right corner.
3. Click on any blue street to enter into Street View.
4. Si Google has only recorded pictures once throughout that zone, you will see on the upper left corner the date when the pictures that you see onscreen were taken.
5. If Google took images on the place more than once, you will see a clock on the upper left corner to the side of the most recent date. Click on the clock, and you will see a timeline with all of the different dates that you could explore.
6. Click on any of the dots, and the click on the image that appears on the upper part of the timeline to explore that area during that date. Depending on the zone that you choose, you’ll be able to see buildings under construction, or zones that haven’t changed at all during the past years.

Satellite View, and 3D view:

Besides the standard top view, Google Maps offers two other types of looking at maps. We all use Google Earth at some point to find our homes, and now, Google Maps has an integrated the same satellite view, but with the option of being able to see important sites on the map, and of being able to make searches offered by the standard vision.

Besides the satellite version, Google Maps also allows you to travel through a city and look for directions as if you were flying through the buildings, or if you were a drone flying over the city. The 3D view also allows you to see the dots labeled on a map, look for specific places, plan routes, and use any of the functionalities offered by the standard vision.

1. Go to maps.google.com in any web browser, or open the app.
2. Look for a city or a specific address, and on the bottom left corner you’ll see a square with the word “Satellite.”
3. Click on that square to change the view to satellite view.
4. While selecting the satellite view, you will see new options on the lower right corner. Click on “3D” to activate 3D vision.

Location History:

Google Maps saves a record of all of the locations that you visit, and it shows them to you in chronological order. This information is private. It’s only available for you, and you can eliminate all of the information that you wish.
On the timeline, you could click in any day to find out which places did you visit, how long did you spend in each place, and which means of transportation did you use to go from one place to the other.

Your timeline even includes the photos that you have taken in each location. Also, keeping this functionality active sends via email a fun summary of your monthly activity: how many hours did you spend on transportation, how many cities did you visit, etc.

1. Go to maps.google.com in any web browser, or open the app.
2. Touch or click on the three lines on the upper left corner, and touch the option “your timeline.”
3. In the upper part, you could choose a day one or click one of the bars. You will see all of the places that you visited that day, the hour, the journeys that you made, and the pictures that you took in each place.
4. To the left of each option, you will see three dots. Click on them to edit or delete a location.
5. On the lower part of the landing page of your timeline, you will see the total number of recorded places. Click on “most visited” to see the places that you have visited the most, and the number of days that you visited each place.

Share your location in real time:

Google Maps allows you to share with others your location in real time and updated according to the journey that you’re making. People will see your location move around the map according to the route that you choose and will see the time that it really takes you to make the journey.

This functionality is useful if you’re making a long trip by land, and you want to let others know that you’re safe and show them your location, and it could also be a good way of telling your loved ones that you arrived safely at your house after leaving late at night.

Share your location:

1. Open the app, and touch the blue dot on the lower right corner to center the map on your current location.
2. Touch the three lines on the upper left corner to open the menu and touch the “share location” option.
3. Select the period of time in which you want to share your location with others.
4. If other people have a Google account, touch “Add people,” and then on “Select people.” Add the people with which you would like to share your location.
5. If other people don’t have a Google account, touch “Add People” > touch the three dots > copy on the clipboard. Share the link so that others can see your location.

Download maps for whenever you lack an internet connection

If you know that you’re going to be in a zone without signal or in a situation in which you won’t have an internet connection, Google Map allows you to download maps and have access to them without a connection. This is the perfect solution for whenever you’re going to travel overseas, or whenever you make long journeys while driving in which you are likely to lose signal.

Google Maps allows you to download areas of a limited size, so, depending on your route or the city that you plan to visit, you may have to divide the area into many maps.

1. Open Google Maps on your mobile device and look for an address, zone, or city that you wish to download.
2. If you looked for a zone, touch the name on the lower part, and touch the option “Download.” If you looked for a specific address, touch the three dots, and then the option “download map without a connection.”
3. After you have downloaded the maps that you need, you could use Google Maps as you usually do even if you’re not connected to the internet. This includes looking for routes, looking for addresses and obtaining information about this zone. However, keep in mind that that you won’t receive any information about the traffic, so your route won’t be recalculated automatically.
4. To see a list of maps that you have downloaded, touch the three dots on the upper left corner, and touch the option “Maps without a connection.”

Save the place where you parked

Anyone who doesn’t have a proper sense of direction and depend on Google Maps to go to any part know that parking lots could be hard to find. Fortunately, Google Maps knows it, and it allows you to store the location where you parked so that they can later give you instructions about how to find your car again.

1. Open the app on your mobile device, and touch the blue dot so that the map centers on your current location.
2. Touch the blue dot that shows your location, and touch the option “set as a parking lot.”
3. To see this location later, touch “Saved Parking Lot” on the lower part of the screen, and then touch on “Show on the Map.” Once you see them on the map, touch “how to reach” to obtain instructions on how to reach the place where you parked.

Measure the distance between two points:

Planning your route will make the app show the length of the journey, but Google Maps also allows you to find out the distance between two points in any part of the map. This allows you, for instance, to plan your own route to go out to jog or know the exact distance between two points in the map regardless of whether or not they are located on opposite ends of the ocean, or if there’s an available route between them. This functionality is only available on the web version of Google Maps.

1. Go to maps.google.com in any web browser, and use the search bar to go to the zone where the exit point is.
2. Right-click on the map on the point where you would like to start measuring, and select “measure distance.”
3. Click on any other part of the map, and a line will de drawn between the 2 points with the distance between them shown below.
4. Continue clicking on the map to create more points and find out the distance between them. On the bottom part of the screen, you will see the total distance in both kilometers and in miles.

Voice commands while driving:

Google Maps offers you an excellent navigation system which will give you instructions throughout your route. Depending on your preference, you could see these instructions onscreen, or activate the instructions via audio to ask for directions while you drive.

Even though lot of people know this functionality, few people know that they could use voice commands while in navigation mode to use Google Maps without needing to use your hands. These voice commands allow you to look for places, change your route, etc.

1. Open Google Maps on an Android mobile device (this functionality isn’t available on iOS.)
2. Say “Okay, Google,” or touch the microphone onscreen to begin using a voice command.
3. Whenever you listen to the audio notification or see the microphone turned on onscreen, say out loud what you want to do. These are some of the commands that you could use:

• “How do I reach X place?”
• “Silence notifications via voice.”
• “Go home.”
• “Call mom.”
• “Which is the closest hotel?”
• Etc.

Obtain information in real time about traffic:

Besides obtaining information about places and routes, with Google Maps, you could obtain information about traffic updated in real-time. Google Maps not only shows you the state of traffic on the map, but also keep in mind the current conditions before calculating the route and calculating the estimated time of the journey. While using this mode, the streets will change color depending on the traffic in this area, and symbols that offer you more information will appear:

• If the street is green: Normal traffic. There won’t be any delays.
• If the street is orange: Moderate traffic. It will take you longer than usual.
• If the street is red/brown: A lot of traffic. It will take you much longer than usual. The darker the route, the higher the traffic on that street.

On a computer:

1. Go to maps.google.com in any web browser, and use the search bar to go to the area where you want to see the traffic.
2. Click on the three lines on the upper left corner to open the menu and click on “Traffic.” The streets change color depending on the current traffic.

On a mobile device:

1. Open the application and use the search bar to go to the area in which you want to see the traffic.
2. On the upper right corner, click on “Layers,” and touch the option “Traffic.” The streets will change color depending on the current traffic.

Have fun with Google’s humor in Google Maps:

The orange stick man figure, or Pegman, works the same as the yellow stick figure that you use in Street View mode on Google Maps. Usually, you need to click on the orange little man and drag it to the point on the map in which you want to use the Street View functionality, but few people know that it has some secrets.

Following Google’s signature sense of humor, the orange little man turns into things depending on the area where you drag him. Besides the Pegman’s transformations, Google has also added a couple of extra secrets.

• In Carlsbad’s Legoland, the Pegman turns into a Lego doll.
• In Loch Ness, the Pegman turns into a monster.
• If you search for a route between the Windsor Castle and the Buckingham Palace, your icon will be displayed as a royal chariot.
• If you search for a route between Fort Augustus and Urquhart Castle, you may consider travelling on top of the Loch Ness Monster.
• If you look for directions between The Shire and Mordor, you will see a funny notification telling you that “One does not simply walk into Mordor.”
• Although this is not available anymore, you used to be able to ride on a dragon from Snowdon to Brecon Beacons.
• On Earl’s Court’s Street View, you will see a curious blue phone booth. Get close to it to explore an interactive Tardis.