{"id":148900,"date":"2019-12-16T09:09:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T09:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=148900"},"modified":"2025-07-01T21:26:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:26:45","slug":"8-tips-google-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/8-tips-google-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"8 tips to take advantage of Google Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GoogleGoogle\u2019s suite of apps has come in and taken the legs out from under what we all considered to be modern life. Everything is different now. You don\u2019t need to remember anything now because you can just Google it, life and death letters come at you instantly via Gmail, and you can now look at every photo you\u2019ve ever taken or seen instantly using Google Photos. Today though, we\u2019re going to look at another Google app that has massively changed the way we see and interact with the world; Google Maps.<\/p>\n

Google Maps means we never have to remember place names or route directions, and it always puts us at the center of the world. You don\u2019t need map skills to get to even the remotest of hidden away places and it\u2019ll even tell you which lane you need to be in when you\u2019re driving in a city you\u2019ve never been to before. The Google Maps\u00a0app can put all your places at your fingertips, show you where the nearest gas stations and ATMs are, help you with your daily commute, and even give you a decent street view of almost every street on the planet. Yep, having Google Maps on your Apple iPhone or Android smartphone puts a lot of power in your hands. Let\u2019s have a deeper look then at how to use the best Google Maps features.<\/p>\n

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Google Maps\u00a0tips and tricks<\/h2>\n

Download maps for offline use<\/h3>\n

\"Download<\/p>\n

You can download offline maps by going to the\u00a0Google Maps menu<\/strong>\u00a0in the top-left of the app and selecting\u00a0Offline Maps<\/strong>. You then tap\u00a0SELECT YOUR OWN MAP<\/strong>\u00a0and navigate to the area you want to download. The other way to do it is to search for a place normally using the search bar, and then hit the description bar that appears at the bottom of the app. You\u2019ll then see a download button, which will give you the ability to select the custom map you\u2019re looking to download and save it to your device.<\/p>\n

Turn on Incognito Mode<\/h3>\n

\"Incognito<\/p>\n

Another feature of this modern world is always off privacy. All the big app developers have baked surveillance features into their products that constantly track our movements; literally so with Google Maps. Fortunately, however, Google Maps has an Incognito Mode, which will stop the app from saving your search and location history.<\/p>\n

To turn on Incognito Mode all you need to do is\u00a0tap your Google account<\/strong>\u00a0Profile Picture<\/strong>\u00a0in the top-right corner of the app and then hit\u00a0Turn on Incognito Mode<\/strong>. You can turn it off again by following the same instructions.<\/p>\n

Save where you\u2019ve parked your car<\/h3>\n

\"Save<\/p>\n

This little-known feature is a lifesaver if you\u2019re constantly forgetting where you\u2019ve parked your car. All you need to do to save your parking location is\u00a0tap the blue dot on Google Maps<\/strong>\u00a0before you walk away from your car. This will open up a small menu about your current location and one of the options you see will be\u00a0Save your parking<\/strong>. Tap it to save your parking location. You\u2019ll then see a notification in your Android phone, which will offer you directions to your car when you tap it.<\/p>\n

Share your real-time\u00a0location<\/h3>\n

\"Live<\/p>\n

Real-time\u00a0location sharing is a popular feature these days with apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger having their own version. Google Maps offers a comprehensive live location sharing feature too, however, that gives you control over how long you\u2019ll be sharing where you are as well as who you\u2019ll be sharing your location with.<\/p>\n

To share your live location in real-time you need to select the\u00a0Google Maps menu<\/strong>\u00a0in the top-left corner of the app and then select\u00a0Location sharing<\/strong>. You can then\u00a0Add people<\/strong>\u00a0who\u2019ll have access to your real-time\u00a0location and select how long you\u2019ll share your location. You can then send your location via Google Maps itself or via several messaging platforms like Messenger and WhatsApp.<\/p>\n

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How to Share Your Live Location on Google Maps<\/p>\r\n Click Here to Read<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

Quick zoom<\/h3>\n

This a simple tip that will make a world of difference when you only have one hand free. You can\u00a0double-tap the map\u00a0<\/strong>to zoom in partially and then continue to do so if you want to focus further on a particular area. For greater control, however, it is better to\u00a0hold your finger or thumb down<\/strong>\u00a0after the second tap. If you double-tap but then leave your thumb on the screen after the second tap, you\u2019ll be able to zoom in or zoom out, if you simply\u00a0swipe<\/strong>\u00a0your thumb up or down<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Add stops to your directions<\/h3>\n

\"Add<\/p>\n

If you need to go to more than one place, Google Maps can help you plan a route that\u2019ll get you to all of them. To do so, all you need to do is ask Google for directions as you normally would and then hit the\u00a0ellipsis menu icon\u00a0<\/strong>in the top-right of the route options bar. In the menu that opens, the top option will be\u00a0Add stop<\/strong>. You can use this option to add multiple stops and then rearrange the order of the stops by dragging each location up and down. When you have all the stops you need and they\u2019re in the right order, click\u00a0Finished\u00a0<\/strong>and Google Maps will give your directions and open navigation mode, should you need it.<\/p>\n

Google Maps chat<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

OK, this isn\u2019t for chatting with your friends, you\u2019ve plenty of other apps for doing that, but Google Maps does have a functioning chat feature. Google Maps chat is for talking to local businesses. If a business has enabled messages, you\u2019ll see the new\u00a0Messages tab<\/strong>, when you click on it in Google Maps. You\u2019ll then be able to chat away with them as if you were friends.<\/p>\n

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Did Google Maps just become a messaging app?<\/p>\r\n Read now<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

Ask a question<\/h3>\n

Another good way of getting answers about locations and favorite places on Google Maps is to\u00a0ask the community<\/strong>. To do so, all you need to do is select a location on Google Maps and then tap the description bar at the bottom of the app. If you scroll down, you\u2019ll see the\u00a0Questions & answers\u00a0<\/strong>section, which will include a text box that you can use to ask questions. Other Google Maps users will then answer back over time.<\/p>\n

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Google Maps might soon start telling your friends how much battery you have left \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These 8 tips and tricks for Google Maps will help you get the most of the app<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":148904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[2441],"tags":[1082,2346,1068,1061],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-148900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","tag-android","tag-app-subdomain-redirectiongoogle-maps","tag-google","tag-google-maps"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325409,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148900\/revisions\/325409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148900"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=148900"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=148900"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=148900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}