Google Maps has all kinds of features that most people don’t use. One such feature is the ability to upload pictures of a particular place. When you search for a place, like a Church for example, you can see pictures from weddings, funerals, services, and much more on Google Maps. As well as photo spheres in that area. It’s a pretty neat feature, and it’s a great way for Google to crowdsource this data from their over 1 billion users. Now in this latest update which is version 9.25.1 which just hit the Play Store not too long ago, you’ll be able to batch upload these photos to Google Maps.
On top of that, you also will see Contact addresses appear in Your Places screen. Making it easier to get directions to someone’s house. Because let’s face it, not everyone knows how to get to their friends or family members house. You can also choose to hide some contacts from Google Maps, so they don’t show up in Your Places. There’s also a new feature under Settings > Notifications, named “New on Maps”. From what it looks like, this feature will notify you about new features to Maps in your area. It’s not entirely descriptive on what this means, but it looks like when new businesses or places of interest appear on the map, you’ll be alerted. Finally, in this update, we are also seeing some more suggestions and related searches on location pages.
Not really any big features in this update, but it is full of some relatively small changes here and there. Definitely a great update to download onto your smartphone or tablet. The update is in the Google Play Store now, however as is the case with most Google apps, the app is in a staged roll out. So it may be a few days before you can get your hands on it from the Play Store. Luckily we do have an APK that you can sideload onto your device. Which will be linked below. Remember to enable “Unknown Sources” in the Settings > Location portion of your smartphone, or you will run into issues.