Earlier this year, we asked some of our most engaged Local Guides to test our new augmented reality feature in Google Maps. Their feedback helped us to make meaningful improvements to the feature. Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we’re expanding it to more people. Live View is now available on ARCore and ARKit enabled devices in locations where we have Street View.
With Live View, you can use augmented reality (AR) to better understand which way to go. Arrows and directions are placed in the world around you on screen to guide your way, helping you identify exactly where to make those tricky turns or which way to start your walking journey.
To use Live View, simply choose your destination in Google Maps and tap the Directions button. From there, make sure to choose the Walking tab as Live View is only available for walking navigation. Make sure you’re outside in a well-lit area to get started. You’ll see the Live View button next to the Start button. Go ahead and tap the Live View button and follow the onboarding tips.
There’s still more work to be done to improve this feature. However, given the positive feedback we received from the Local Guides community, we’re hopeful that Live View, even in its beta form, can help people in those crucial moments when GPS and compass simply don’t cut it.
Please share your feedback and experiences in the comments below. If you have suggestions for ways to improve the feature, please share your idea on the Idea Exchange. We’ll be monitoring all of the feedback closely to help inform what to prioritize as we continue to improve the product.
Edit: Finally it works almost flawlessly (at least on my Pixel 4)! Even in dark situations it only takes a few more seconds and even then recognises where I am! I’m totally blown away by its performance!
Before judging my statement, please note that I’m using Google Maps Beta v10.23.1.
I must say I’m pretty disappointed by the bad performance that Live View has on my Pixel 1 XL running Android Q 10 Beta 6 (which should be really close to the stable Q build)…
It takes at least 5 seconds until the camera UI is shown. That should be reducible to at max 4 seconds.
When it finally “sees” it’s laggy as hell. At max 20 fps.
I would love to see performance improvements for that.
Thank you so much for building this awesome feature. I’m sure when it’s launching as a stable feature it will be amazing in terms of performance and accuracy!
I like it. Just getting back to local guides after a long illness, but I like what I see. I am very inspired by all of you, and the work that you put into making travel and exploration easier for those of us who are disabled.
To use Live View, simply choose your destination in Google Maps and tap the Directions button. From there, make sure to choose the Walking tab as Live View is only available for walking navigation. Make sure you’re outside in a well-lit area to get started. You’ll see the Live View button next to the Start button. Go ahead and tap the Live View button and follow the onboarding tips.
