TECHNO WORLD BEYOND FUTURE: #Google Maps v9.60

Friday saw the launch of video submissions by Local Guides, some of which are already popping up. But that wasn't the only thing to come with the v9.60 update, the Picture-in-Picture mode added in the last update has been fixed and now offers a useful window into your trip while you're using other apps. There are also several new topics for a teardown, including personal notes for locations, food reviews with photo submissions, and much more.

Picture-in-Picture now works in Navigation mode

Picture-in-Picture support was added to Google Maps a few weeks ago in the v9.59 update. However, it wasn't all that useful as the content of the window was dominated by a blank titlebar and had some rendering issues. It was pretty obvious that PiP mode wasn't really intended to go live in that form, but the latest version of Maps has it working like it should.

The window now includes the map you're traveling on (albeit probably too small to make much use of), a turn indicator, the name of the road you're on or turn you're about to take, and an estimate for when you should get to your destination. Only Navigation Mode offers a useful PiP window, the regular overview mode still doesn't offer much.

Food reviews and photos

Google Maps currently makes a few efforts to showcase the food available from a restaurant, including a dedicated section in the photo viewer for foodie shots and a menu section on some restaurants. There still a big disconnect between these two features, and a picture of food only conveys how it looks and possibly some of the ingredients, but it doesn't help with how it tastes.

Publishing events (for business owners?)

You may not have stumbled onto this one unless you're looking for it, but Google Maps actually lists events like concerts and plays at many venues. As far as I can tell, the list is only visible if you're looking at a location where events are listed, and it's pretty far down on the detail page, so this is an easy one to miss. Business owners have options for publishing events at their location, but it has to be done through a web interface. It looks like there's going to be an option to also post events right from the phone app. This is great for smaller businesses that don't have an organized workflow for publishing events, or when an irregular or last-minute event comes up.

Shortcuts

Google Maps is packed with a ton of features and information, but most of us only use a small percentage of what's there. If you're using the same features over and over, there's a pretty good chance you could actually benefit from having them even more accessible. A bunch of new strings were added that show there are new shortcuts that will launch directly into specific screens within Maps without having to tap or swipe through a single menu.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

Version: 9.60.0