How to add travel photos to Google Maps (driving me crazy - any help appreciated!)

I am going a bit crazy trying to upload photos from my mobile phone to Google Maps, so that they appear in the exact location.

I am using the Google Photos app on my phone (Android). The JPG photo I want to upload has an embedded geotag (its co-ordinates are correct, I’ve checked).

In Google Photos, I select the photo, then tap ‘Share’, then ‘Add To Maps’. After this is when the problem starts!

Basically, just before I want to ‘Send’ the photo to Google Maps, it asks for the location, and suggests the nearest landmark to the geotag (village etc). Yes, I can select a different landmark if I want - but I have to select a landmark! What if the photo is not of a landmark, but is several km away from any landmarks, in the middle of a mountainous area??!! There is no option like ‘Use photo geotag for location’.

If I select the nearest landmark (or any landmark) then the photo is uploaded and tagged to that landmark on Google Maps, even though the photo location (and the embedded geotag) are some distance away!

And yet, when I go to the ‘actual’ location of my photo on Google Maps, and bring up the ‘photo strip’ along the bottom of the map, there are loads of photos by other people in the area which are not tagged to any landmark, and when you run your mouse over a photo, a little arrow appears, showing you the exact position it was taken!!

What am I doing wrong?!

Thanks very much.

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Hi @spsallidas

Adding photos to Google Maps means adding photos that are permitted, according to: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/2622947

It means that you can add photos of POI (business, natural features, and more) that have a listing on Google maps: “You can’t add photos or videos to addresses”.

ermest, thanks very much for your reply.

Please see the attached ‘screen grab’. At this location there are no Maps ‘features’, no roads, no towns. How did someone called “antonio pacheco” upload his photo, to appear at this exact (GPS) location?

Any help is appreciated.

Stephen

Ok, I got your point. @spsallidas

The photos that you are sharing are 360°. That kind of photosphere can be added on the map, through the street view app. The 360 photos can be added everywhere in the map, but you get point only if you add it to a POI. https://support.google.com/maps/answer/7011737

Hope this can help you

Ermes

Thanks again Ermest, I really appreciate your help.

So the only photos which can be placed on G Maps in their ‘real’ GPS position, are 360-degree photos via Street View? All other photos (non-360) must be attached to a ‘feature’?

I will download the Street View app and try it out, although I have very few 360-degree photos (I have quite a lot of 180-degree ‘panoramic’ photos though).