Google is the company behind Android, and it’s not exactly surprising that there are a ton of Google’s applications available for the Android platform through the Google Play Store. Gmail, Chrome, YouTube and Google Maps are quite probably Google’s most popular applications out there, and many people would say that these are Google’s best apps. Having that in mind, Google is constantly trying to improve their applications, of course, and it seems like the company is working on delivering a new navigation interface for Google Maps, read on.
Some users are receiving new Google Maps navigation interface through the beta channel. So, the version of the app we’re looking at there is 9.42.3, and there are some changes, but do keep in mind this is not a huge overhaul or anything like that. Once you fire up navigation to a specific place, and tap on the ‘ETA’ bar, you will get a menu where you can access search, alternate routes, directions and a shortcut to navigation settings with one extra tap. This essentially means that you’ll have to make one extra tap in order to access alternate routes and directions, as well as traffic and satellite options, which some of you probably won’t like. Now, once you enter the alternate routes view, you’ll be able to access yet another menu with search and re-center options, and you’ll also be able to access directions and navigation settings from there. Do keep in mind that touch targets are quite a bit bigger in this new navigation interface, which is probably a good thing considering it’ll be easier to tap on a certain option no matter in which menu you’re currently at. There are two images in the gallery down below for you to take a look at, and compare to the navigation interface that is currently available for Google Maps users.
A couple of things to keep in mind here, this is a server-side change, and it seems like it only rolled out to some users who are using the beta version of the app. It is possible that this navigation interface will never hit the stable version of Google Maps, though chances are it will, and this is Google’s final testing before they decide to roll it out to everyone. In any case, we’ll let you know if that happens, as per usual.
