Episode 56: News & Updates

Uncategorized

In the last few weeks quite a few interesting and/or newsworthy facts about Google Maps and the Local Guides program have popped up on my radar. So the only sensible thing to do for me is to make another News & Updates podcast episode.

SHOWNOTES

 

TRANSCRIPT

Spotify automatically creates (with AI) transcripts of each episode – I am adding that here, but without having checked in full detail. The content might therefore not be 100% accurate.

0:06

Hello and welcome to the Let’s Guide Podcast, the ultimate podcast for Google Local Guides.

In the last few weeks, quite a few interesting and or newsworthy facts about Google Maps and the Local Guides programme have popped up on my radar.

0:23

So really the only sensible thing for me to do is to make another news and updates podcast episode.

Of course, this is episode 56 of the Let’s Guide podcast.

Before diving in as usual, I want to point out that I’m not an official representative of Google or the Local Guides team, just a local guide like most of you, my dear listeners.

0:48

Everything you hear in this podcast is therefore my personal interpretation of things.

The podcast is recorded at the end of April 2026 and is therefore describing the situation as it is today.

1:04

Should you be listening at a later date, things might obviously have changed.

Let’s get started.

Let’s indeed get started with what is no doubt the biggest news there is, or will be, depending on where in the world you live, a completely new experience for using navigation on Google Maps on the keyword.

1:28

The official blog from Google on a post there, which I will link to in the show notes.

Of course, Miriam Daniel, who is Vice President and General Manager of Google Maps, states Google Maps is fundamentally changing what a map can do.

1:46

By bringing together the world’s freshest map with our most capable Gemini models, we are transforming exploration into a simple conversation and making driving more intuitive than ever with our biggest navigation upgrade in over a decade.

2:04

So the blog post is in fact announcing 2 separate things.

One is called Ask Maps and the other is Immersive Navigation.

First, Ask Maps.

That’s simply what the name says.

They have added an extra AI layer which enables you to ask questions using natural language, a phrase you’ve heard before and will hear hear in the future about other products.

2:29

No doubt because AI is really the hot thing these days.

The example used in the blog post is my phone is dying.

Where can I charge it without having to wait in a long line for coffee?

Answering these kinds of questions is of course only possible by also using the contributions made everyday by you and me, the Local Guides, as some of the really practical everyday details about businesses can only be found in reviews or in the edits of, for example, opening hours.

3:04

The keyword post also acknowledges that maps analysis information from over 300 million places, including reviews from our community of more than 500 million contributors.

This means of course that making Local Guides contributions on maps and making sure that the info on maps about the places, the points of interest is accurate and up to date, Well, that is getting more valuable and more important than ever.

3:36

Ask Maps.

This new feature has rolled out already in the US and also in India.

Let’s hope other regions will follow soon because we want to put this to the test.

Of course.

On to the other new Gemini based edition then.

3:52

Immersive navigation.

The description of this novelty Google gifts and I’m literally quoting from the blog post again.

Your map comes to life with a vivid 3D view that reflects the buildings, overpasses, and terrain around you.

4:09

When it’s helpful, maps will highlight critical Rd details like lanes, crosswalks, traffic lights, and stop signs to help you make that turn or merge confidently.

One of the most interesting new features, my view, is the fact that buildings will be shown as transparent blocks, enabling you to see much better what you can expect around the corner.

4:34

Because that’s what I often find difficult right now when using navigation in dense city environments where consecutive navigation instructions often come quickly one after the other.

With transparent buildings, you can look much better.

You can look ahead much better and also the smart zoom shown in the blog post.

4:56

There’s a short video in the showing this feature that looks quite helpful.

So make sure to check out the announcement that Google made.

As I said, it’s LinkedIn.

The show notes.

There are some other interesting features mentioned in it.

So worth the read if you ask me.

5:15

Immersive navigation is already rolling out today across the US, and according to the announcement post, availability will expand over the coming months to eligible iOS and Android devices, Car Play, Android Auto, and Cars with Google built in.

5:34

And since we’re talking about new versions, you’ve undoubtedly already noticed that Google Maps has a new logo.

The one we had since 20/20, which was introduced for Maps 15th Anniversary, that had the shape of a pin with four solid blocks in the four Google colours.

5:53

That has now, in early March, been replaced with a virgin that has still the same 4 colours, but with gradients instead of solid blocks.

And the wide opening in the pin has become bigger.

The gradients in the new logo are in line with a redesign of the overall Google logo, which happened already in May 2025.

6:16

On that same topic of redesign and moving to gradients, there’s another important novelty which started rolling out on April 7th.

The Local Guides programme is also getting a major design makeover, if I’m not mistaking the most radical one since the start of the programme now almost 11 years ago.

6:37

To be clear, the content of the Local Guides programme is not changing the way you get points.

The number of points you get, the number of levels there are, those all remain the same, but all graphical elements are brand new.

The orange Local Guide logo is being replaced with a white 5 pointed star on a gradient background.

6:59

Indeed also here a gradient is being introduced.

It ranges from blue on the left sides to orange on the right side.

The connection we used to know between your level as a local guide and the number of points in the start icon.

7:16

So a level 5 had five points in the star, level 7 had 7 points and so on.

This connection is also now removed from the programme.

All levels from level 4 onwards now have this new 5 pointed star, but it’s still very clear which level you are from the text below this new icon for level 10 local guides.

7:43

There’s even an extra with some animation and gold coloured elements on the profile in the Maps app.

In the show notes I link to a bunch of things. 1st the connect post of course with the official announcement of all the redesign elements.

8:02

Then another article on the the keywords, the official Google blog about the updates made to the contributors and then finally a link also on Connect from a link to Lalo’s post.

So Connect moderated from Mexico Lalo, who has shared a nice post where you can see the old version of the Level 10 profile and the new version including the animation.

8:31

Go check it out on Connect.

The blog post, by the way, also announces another nice new feature, as the Google Maps team apparently wants us to add more captions to our pictures.

Gemini will draft a caption for you for the pictures that you upload to Maps.

8:51

A draft of a caption?

That’s the keyword here.

You can still edit or decide not to use that caption at all, because as we all know from experience, most of us AI can still make quite a few mistakes.

And the blog post also interestingly mentions that the community of contributors to Google Maps now counts 500 million members.

9:17

In the past, they were always talking about 150 or 160 million local guides.

But since you no longer specifically need to sign up to become a Local Guide and automatically become one as soon as you contribute anything to Google Maps, the community has apparently more than tripled.

9:36

Back to the rebranding of the Local Guides programme.

Then on Connects, the rebranding is already completed and you will see there that the link between the levels and the colours.

So level 8 used to be a green profile dot, level 9A purple, one, level 10 black and so on.

9:54

There are now all replaced with orange dots with the level number insides.

I’m pretty sure there might be some level of outcry about the familiar colours being removed, but that’s simply what you always get when you introduce a new style.

10:10

I’m pretty sure we’ll get used to it soon enough, though.

The contributor badges like Expert, Fact Finder or Master Photographer have also been completely redesigned for a Photographer badge.

For example, Novice is now represented with a pocket camera, Expert with a somewhat bigger camera, and Master with a camera that has a Tele lens.

10:35

The show notes are linked to the support page from Google where all those badges in the new designs are listed.

A glimpse of that new local guide style was already introduced a few weeks earlier when an adaptation was rolled out to the splash screen that local guides get to see when submitting contributions.

10:57

There used to be an animation of points adding up, for example, counting from 1:00 to 5:00 for submitting a picture, or counting from 1 to 15 for adding a place.

Well, these this animation of the numbers is no longer there.

Instead you get to see an animated image in a pop up screen when you submit contributions to specific types of places, for example coffee shops or donut shops.

11:24

For contributions to those places, of course, the ones I’ve seen already have a bigger drawn image of, for example, a cup of coffee with two smaller ones to the left and the right.

All three of those are that flow in from the bottom and the two smaller ones disappear at the end.

11:43

The bigger one remains there with A5 pointed star with rounded corners, rounded corners as backdrop.

The star has two layers of grey.

And that’s indeed the element which was already hinting to the new style of the local Pro Local Guides programme.

11:59

Because it’s perfectly In Sync with that, of course.

In the show notes, I’ll put a link to a post by Adrian Lanson on Connect, who has collected quite a few of the types of images that you can see there.

12:16

For example, a croissant for a bakery, a tree for a park, a plate with cutlery for a restaurant, sushi, sushi sticks for a sushi place or a Chinese restaurant, a book for a library, and so on.

Of course, this is not valid for all 4000 categories.

12:33

Try coming up, for example, with a visual presentation of management consultant or distributor of electronic accessories.

There’s one small problem, though with this new feature.

If you change the category of a place on Maps, the animation you get is the one belonging to the old incorrect category instead of the animation for the new corrected category.

13:00

If you for example, correct the category of a coffee shop to a restaurant, you get the coffee animation, not the restaurant animation.

If someone from the Google team is listening, perhaps you could consider creating a bug ticket for that before continuing with the other Google Maps and Android Auto news.

13:22

Very briefly, one more local guides and contributions related item.

In case you have not yet noticed, videos are now really, really, really prioritised in the section with pictures and videos on places on maps if a video is available.

13:40

Also, if the quality is not really amazing or if the video is not really recent, that will be shown on the first or second place for that point of interest.

So if you want to have your contributions prominently shown on maps and get the high count of views that comes with it, naturally search for places that don’t have a video yet and add a short video clip there.

14:07

Moving on then to some possible future new features of Maps.

According to Android Authority, a black and white power saving mode is in the making, which could be extremely useful in cases where you risk running out of battery and still desperately need navigation instructions.

14:27

A link to the article in the show notes.

Of course, they also mentioned that the power saving mode might even go so far as to also remove all text from the screen, including the street names.

No idea if that will actually ever make it to the Maps app.

14:44

Wait and see is all we can do I guess.

Also from Android authority comes an article claiming Google Maps could soon let you choose shady streets, which would be great for people living in countries where temperatures can get really hot.

15:00

So shady in the sense of actual shade being there to protect you from the sun, not streets where things might happen which are not meant to see daylight.

Android Authority discovered a toggle in the trip option settings.

15:16

So that’s the area where you can currently already see toggles to switch on or off accessible routes, or where you can toggle on or off avoiding fairies.

But apparently there might soon be an extra toggle there to indicate that you prefer shade.

15:33

A link in the show notes, of course to the article, which also contains a screenshots if you want to check out what that looks like.

Another quite fascinating thing I came across, and this is already available as a source, is a video shared by Ghoul themselves and a link to that video.

15:51

A YouTube video in the show notes that’s Virtex AI.

This is really more for developers, so I won’t go into too much tech details here, but basically it offers the possibility to use real time data from Google Maps, including for example also info stored in reviews for use in LLMS, large language models, with an output which is not simply text as you get in typical AI chat bots, but an output including actual maps and also geospatial info.

16:25

Make sure to check that video, it’s only four minutes long.

Moving on then to Google Maps on Android Auto.

Since a couple of years I am driving an electric vehicle myself so I was extremely pleased to see some new features pop up which are specifically meant for EV drivers.

16:46

The first one is actually something I noticed myself when using Android Auto.

I saw on my display an icon had I had not seen before and decided to touch it.

Pretty sure most of you have at some point also had this.

What would this button do?

17:03

Feeling right?

The urge to click is simply irresistible.

So when I tapped it, a screen opened that allowed me to philtre for specific charging speeds.

After doing some research, I discovered that there were reports about this feature already at the end of 2025 S.

17:22

I’ll link in the show notes to an article from Echo Drive.

That article by the way also mentioned a mentions A philtre for payment methods, but that’s probably only in the US or so, because I did not see that on my Android Auto.

Here in Europe, brand new for EVs and at the moment also only in the US is a feature Google announced already end of March linked to that announcement.

17:51

Of course on the keyword blog they will now use AI what else to make predictions based on specific brands of cars.

The blog post mentions 350 different models where for example the weight and the battery size are considered and also real time traffic and weather conditions as well as Rd elevation details.

18:15

If your route contains a lot of uphill stretches, the battery consumption will be higher.

Of course.

You should then get personalised suggestions for where and when to charge, an intelligent predictions of your estimated time of arrival and the battery level upon arrival.

18:34

If your destination has no charging infrastructure in the vicinity, you of course need to keep some juice in the battery to be able to start the return trip.

Let’s hope AI doesn’t start hallucinating too much on this.

Or perhaps let’s hope everyone using this feature keeps using a bit of common sense.

18:56

Before closing up, I want to mention one more very interesting thing and link in the show notes to nothing less than a scientific scientific article on nature.com.

I will let you discover all the details yourself, but the topic of the article is a kind of Google Maps of Ancient Rome.

19:15

The project is called Itiner E and it is the most detailed and comprehensive open digital data set of roads in the entire Roman Empire.

Go check it out Google Maps for ancient Rome.

And before I forget, of course there is still time to sign up for Euro Meet Up 2026, a yearly community driven gathering of local guides, mainly from Europe but also some US based people will attend.

19:45

This time the the event is held in Dublin from May the 8th to May the 10th, which actually overlaps with Connect Live Dublin, the event organised by the Google team.

So if you decide to attend Eurometup 2026 you will also meet a lot of the dedicated local guides that Google have selected for their event.

20:07

In the show notes, I link to Adrian Lansong’s post.

With all the details on how to sign up for Euro Meet Up 2026 in Dublin.

And that brings us to the end of this episodes.

Should you have any other questions, comments or remarks about anything related to Google Maps or the Local Guides programme, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

20:32

You can reach me by sending an e-mail to letsguidepodcast@gmail.com.

Find me on Connect Where I am moderator Jon Von Haver and the show notes.

There’s a lot of them this time you will find on the podcast website, which is simply simply let’s guidepodcast.com.

20:54

Thank you very much for listening to this episode 56 and hope to find you in the audience for number 57.

Bye bye, game over.

Published

Leave a Reply