There are new features in Google Maps that go more unnoticed than others. One of them is search with augmented reality, which arrived on our phones last year. It’s for me one of the most useful ways to use augmented reality the cellphone.
Google Lens integration in Google Maps is essential when you are in a location and you want to find interesting places in the areathat they are close so you can walk and show you with augmented reality where exactly they are.
Lens on Google Maps
Have you ever wondered what the Google Lens icon in the Google Maps search bar is for? It’s been there for a while and the first time you tap on it, Google explains that it’s a way to find places within the area of certain categories. For example, cafes, places of interest or clothing stores.
The way it works is quite curious, because when we place the phone parallel to the ground, the map continues to be displayed, but with a radius around us which delimits the zone of 5 minutes on foot. Indeed, research with augmented reality is limited to searching in this radius very close to us, whether we like it or not.
The idea is that we use this function to find an interesting place when we are already in the area. For example, if you are going to a place with many points of interest, search with augmented reality helps you separate what is what, by categories. You can’t use it to search for a specific location, but rather categories of locations.
When you place the phone vertically, Cell phone camera is a kind of futuristic scanner which shows you precisely where the nearest coffee shop is, how far away it is, its average rating, and whether the place is busy at that time or not. All this, with a label superimposed on the map, placed on the site in augmented reality.
This research with augmented reality has helped me more than once to find interesting places that I had before my eyes and that I hadn’t even realized. Because it shows which direction they’re facing (even if it’s a straight line), it also helps you stay on track if you’re exploring an area.
Augmented reality search is not the same as walking routes with augmented realitydespite the fact that the two functions are closely linked and complement each other perfectly.
In this direction in a straight line, at 780 meters, is the cafeteria
For example, after finding a coffee shop I like and knowing which direction it is in a straight line, I may still not have it in sight. By tapping on it in its augmented reality information panel, you can access its map information, from where you can start a walking route.
These hiking routes can be convert routes with augmented reality by pressing the button of the cards icon placed in a square, formerly called Live view. The result is just as astonishing, if not more, than in research with augmented reality.
So, one of my favorite features of Google Maps is use your phone’s camera to find nearby places and, if necessary, also take advantage of augmented reality to follow the directions by walking exactly to the door. This is, in my opinion, one of the best augmented reality apps on the market.
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