How to preserve audio on your Maps videos

Google Maps tips & tricks
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This was a surprise to me. It turns out that videos we upload to Google Maps are now by default stripped for audio.

The tech team kindly provided instructions on how to make sure your music, narration or ambient audio is not muted while uploading your videos to Google Maps.

In this topic @Miguel1, @Annaelisa, @ErmesT and I discussed why the audio was missing on recently uploaded videos. Then @TsekoV brilliantly was able to get the help we very much needed.

Actually, we now need to make an extra three taps when uploading a video. Here is what to do on mobile devices if you want audio on your Maps videos.

Start uploading the video as you normally do.

Stop right before you hit Post.

Then tap the Edit icon shown in the lower left corner of the video:

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Then you will see this:

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In the lower right corner there is a loudspeaker icon named Un-mute.

Hit Un-mute and you get this pop-up message: Video will have sound

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Then continue to post your video as usual hit Done. Then Post.

I think having audio on Maps videos is a valuable thing, and stripping audio should in my opinion not be the default.

The challenge is that we now have to manually remember these 3 extra steps for each video we upload.

Cheers

This topic is no part of the #TipsForBetterMapsVideos series. Find the Series Index here.

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In my opinion, muted by default makes sense as long it is well known how to un-mute.

Too many users just record only nonsense noise without even being aware of it. If users consciously decide the sound brings added value, they should do the additional step to enable it. Again, important is, to know how.

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I like this move. I never listen to the audio on Google Maps videos. Plus, I’m usually the only one filming the food and the place for Google Maps during group meals, so I’ve always had to avoid recording my friends’ conversations for privacy.

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This is such an important find..! Huge thanks to @TsekoV for digging into this with the tech team, and to @Miguel1 , @Annaelisa for the initial deep dive.

I was facing this issue since last few weeks and was searching the resolution. From this post I got good information. I will definitely be keeping a close eye on that Edit icon henceforth. Hopefully, we can see a toggle for this in the settings soon so it doesn’t have to be a manual fix every time… Thanks @MortenCopenhagen for highlighting this insights with us.

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@AkSakei and @WilfriedB

In my app the audio is off by default when playing videos on Maps. That should take care of your concern, in my opinion.

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Danke @MortenCopenhagen für diese Erklärung. Ich benötige den Ton auch nur für schöne Naturgeräusche wie die Wellen des Meeres oder den Gesang der Vögel.
Danke auch @TsekoV

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Why wasting bandwidth for uploading and downloading to transmit something, users don’t want to listen to anyway?

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There is plenty of information in audio that others might find relevant and important.

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But not, if users just make videos without taking care what kind of audio in the form of background noise is recorded. And again, if you record a video and feel the audio is important, you can “un-mute” before uploading.

Anyway, like many others of Google’s decisions we can change it, but I appreciate this one and the fact you communicated how to get around it.

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@MortenCopenhagen Thank you for the information. I usually mute my videos because often someone is talking while filming. However, when it’s an empty location with only ambient sound, I tend to keep it muted.

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@MortenCopenhagen
I express my gratitude for sharing a beautiful topic with us.

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Thanks for the information!

I have to admit that in my case, having the audio muted by default actually makes sense, since I usually have limited control over the audio during recording…..

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@MortenCopenhagen

That is very interesting, I used to mute most of my video by default.

You are using the editor in Google photos I’m always using both the stabilization feature and muting in order to create a slicker video.

The main reason for muting was I found the street noise or the ambience in some places and too harsh. So thinking about someone who is navigating or checking a place on maps and being bombarded with harsh audio…to me it always seems too intrusive.

Seems my instinct was mostly right…

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Thanks for sharing this useful information @MortenCopenhagen I was able to find this option sometime back as well. As for every video I upload I use the stabilize and enhance features which is available in the edit option. We need to make sure to unmute the video we upload if audio has a useful information relevant to the place. Else, the default mode is always mute.

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@MortenCopenhagen. Thank you so much for sharing this. I never realized that the videos we upload are muted by default

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Thank you for sharing this crucial update, @MortenCopenhagen! It was definitely a surprise to learn that our videos are stripped of audio by default. I really appreciate you passing along the instructions so we can keep our ambient sounds and narrations intact!

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I think these recent changes suggest that Google Maps is taking privacy more seriously.
• No more follow function
• Ability to customize displayed names and icons
• Audio is no longer enabled by default

I didn’t feel comfortable with some of these features, so I’m glad they have fixed them now.

I think these changes will encourage more people to start contributing to Google Maps, since there is less risk involved in posting publicly.

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Thank you @MortenCopenhagen for your guidance on how to upload video so the sound is not muted automatically

Honestly, I rarely upload videos now. A few of my reviews with videos didn’t get published, so I’ve been a bit hesitant to add videos since then.

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Ok. Im sorry. I did not mean anything bad. My mistake. But like i told im learning. Im not perfect.

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Its not exuse but yeah. My honest thinkg is to help the Google Maps. I make mistakes and i take full responsibility of those.