Immersive View, the interactive Google Maps feature first announced at Google I/O 2022, is finally rolling out. The feature will initially be available for London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo, and is set to go live for more cities in the coming months.
Immersive View uses a combination of Street View and aerial imagery to present digital, real-time representations of cities in Google Maps, and Google has confirmed that users in Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence, and Venice will soon be able to access the innovative navigational tool.
Despite having offices in New York and London, we haven’t yet been able to access (and therefore test) Immersive View for ourselves, which suggests Google is rolling out the new feature on an area-by-area basis (likely due to the significant amount of data-crunching required to implement it on a large scale). Some Reddit users have shared images of Immersive View in action, though, so we know it’s currently live in certain neighborhoods.
Introducing an immersive view — a whole new way to explore on Google Maps. 🌎You’ll be able to experience what a place looks and feels like before you arrive, powered by advances in AI that allow us to fuse together billions of Street View and aerial images. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/UCj7cInz2RMay 11, 2022
In addition to giving you an aerial view of – and real-time crowd, weather, and traffic information for – famous landmarks, Immersive View also highlights essential places like shops, ATMs, and restaurants in your area by using your phone’s camera.
Again, Google has already begun the rollout of this sub-feature – dubbed Search with Live View – in London, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Tokyo, but Barcelona, Dublin, and Madrid are next on the agenda.
Indoor Live View – a Google Maps feature that displays AR-powered arrows to help you find the closest restrooms, lounges, taxi stands, car rentals and other indoor spots – is likewise expanding to more regions. This particular feature has been around in the US, Zurich and Tokyo since 2021, but Google is now planning on making more than 1,000 new airports, train stations and malls across Barcelona, Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Melbourne, Paris, Prague, São Paulo, Singapore, Sydney and Taipei compatible with Indoor Live View.
In other words, Google’s Immersive View Google Maps features are coming to more users in more regions than ever over the next few months – so keep checking your Google Maps app to see what new options are available.
We’d suggest you connect to Wi-Fi before testing any of those features, mind. One Redditor has pointed out that Immersive View ate up 2GB of data in just half an hour, so those with limited mobile data should use Google Maps cautiously.
For more Google Maps content, check out our roundup of 10 things you didn't know Google Maps could do, as well as our head-to-head comparison of Apple Maps vs. Google Maps.
