Multiple ways to add photos to Maps through the phone! I counted ten and then stopped.

Google Maps tips & tricks
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Caption: A photo of the back view of a young man taking a photograph of an empty street with his smartphone.(Alexander Spatari/Getty Images)
At this place, I am compiling an inventory of myriad but legitimate ways to publish the photos, excluding the workarounds. In my opinion, posting anything through the share option in Google Photos amounts to that.

So the possible options are:

#1 The primary and best route is through “Contribute” and then select the suggested one. That should be a standard practice if you wish to prevent inadvertent duplication.

#2 Then adding pics along with the reviews turns into the second.

But consider, you are standing in front of the POI and solely want to upload a shot and plan to review that later, then more options emerge.

#3 Tap the three dots and select the menu option: Add photos.

#4 Scroll down in edit mode and choose “Add a photo”.

#5 The naive option to add a photo will always be there!

#6 If you are endowed, you may receive a notification to click a picture and upload that instantly.

#7 In the case of restaurants, click on the food menu becomes an added pick.

#8 Next, loading the map through the mobile browser opens up another means. However, do not resort to a desktop site.
The prompt appears here directly below the specimen pics.
This technique becomes valuable when the regular app is busy with navigation.

#9 But why invoke Maps in this manner?
If the POI is renowned, straightway type the name in the search box. Then through the overview section, click on the “more about” down arrow. Here, you will find another “add photo“ option.

#10 Nevertheless, suggest an edit and then include a photograph is available here too.

Below, I am presenting the screenshots of 3, 4 & 9 as these tend to be obscure.

11 Anything left-out?

I was inspired to compose this narrative by a similar article by** @Raphael-Mahumane **

There, I commented saying “two more legitimate options are possible” but did not provide any specific clue. Trust, now, you must have got an idea of those additional routes available on a PC!

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Hi @C_T ,

Thanks for sharing this overview, but what are the implications of choosing one of the ways over an other? Are they any different?

If not, it’s just nice to have more several options available.

The only issue I can think of is the never ending and slightly annoying prompting to get us to upload our pics AGAIN even though they are uploaded all ready and the prompting to get us to upload our photos (again) to WRONG places.

Cheers

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Hello @MortenCopenhagen

Thanks for the comment.

The options aren’t different. It’s only the way we access the facility to upload a photo.

In the opening paragraph itself, I stated the preferred route is to add through the “contribute” menu only.
I have ceased using any other route & that stopped the inadvertent duplication altogether.

However, sometimes being impulsive, we are in navigation mode & then at a pit stop we wish to upload a photo instantly. At that instance, the other options become useful.

Since I have stopped doing so, can’t test whether a photo published in such a way will reappear in the suggestion.

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Hi @MortenCopenhagen there is no better option than the other, I think it depends on your condition, if you have added photos before on that location or a written a review, these are the things that will make your experience or the route you take different from others who never added a review or photos before on a particular location. Thank you @C_T for mentioning, I am glad the post is useful to you and to the others, even though it was not perfectly written. Cheers

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Hi @C_T ,

Thanks for this nice extensive overview.

You mentioned excluding workarounds and said: " In my opinion, posting anything through the share option in Google Photos amounts to that." Not many Local Guides seem to be aware that Google has repeatedly told us on Connect not to use the Google Photos route as it enables people to upload photos to POI on Maps where we are not supposed to.

The one additional legit way to add photos that I did not see on your list is to use Google Search. The info-card that shows up for certain POI, include the Write a review and Add photo buttons. I believe these are legit.

What I like about Google Search in the context of Local Guides is that the Search Info-Card has more information than Google Maps gives us. For example, all the social media accounts that Google recognized as being associated with the POI are listed.

Keep up the good work!

JeroenM

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Thanks for the comment and also supporting my point regarding the Google Photo alternative @JeroenM

The option explained at Sr. No. 9 represents the one you mentioned in the comment.

The info card appears truncated on mobile and needs to be expanded by clicking the down arrow.

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My mistake @C_T , I took your method number #9 as using a web browser with Google Maps open (LOL), doing so would multiply your number of methods, but would be silly of course. :rofl:

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And the one everyone forgets is if you have a 360 camera and thru the streetview app. I tend to take the food and such cell phone. But to give you a whole view I pull my 360 camera out. And don’t for get to add your short videos.