What do you think about Google Maps? Do you sometimes find the map too crowded with icons and buttons at the top? Maybe you will change your mind after trying Baidu Maps, something like The Chinese equivalent of Google Maps.
Google Maps in China works average (if not bad), but that’s not a problem because they have apps like Baidu Maps instead. This is China’s Google Maps and it’s curious that Its design is radically different and even denser.
Here are the Google Maps of China
Each place has its own customs, also in the design of applications. In the West, this is more visible in the customization layers of Android, where the traditional Chinese layers like MIUI, EMUI or ColorOS They were much more bloated than pure or minimally modified Android, like the Pixel.
One way to experience this directly is test Baidu Mapswhich can be downloaded from Google Play even though the app store is not active in China. Until 2016, Baidu Maps only showed maps of China, Macau, Taiwan and Hong Kong, but today its maps cover practically the entire world.
Buttons. Buttons everywhere.
The experience with Baidu Maps is quickly crushing and not only because of the language (the app is only available in Chinese). The map is not very detailed in Europe, which contrasts with the number of buttons and elements displayed at the top:
- A top search bar with robot and voice search.
- A circular banner with the face of a celebrity which you can use voice in navigation.
- The layers button.
- A shortcut bar to tools like text translations, directions, and other “mini-apps.”
- A collection of web articles about activities or destinations in the region.
- A “Like” button that I no longer know what it is for because it subsequently disappeared.
Everything takes some getting used to, though the overlapping and superfluous buttons are a bit harder to digest. If you’re lucky, a text banner telling you things like “Unlock Summer Hotel Reservations” can be dismissed with a other floating icons cannot be removed, TikTok style. No thanks.
Custom voices that can be activated with the floating button that for some reason won’t disappear
Of course, it is all about adapting and the truth is that the application also has a number of settings and options in which we can try to tame its style a little and understanding the language would also be useful. But without understanding a single word, the big difference with Google Maps is clear: everything has lots and lots of buttons, and you don’t always know where they’re taking you. Sometimes it’s a setting in the app and other times you end up reading a travel blog about a destination or you get a discount if you book a hotel.
The appearance itself is typical of Chinese apps, denser and with more things than what Material Design and Material You have accustomed us to all these years. If you have a mobile phone with a recharged Chinese layer or if you have used applications like Zepp or Xiaomi Home, you may already know a little about the style, although in China it is even more unleashed.
One moment you’re taking a route and the next moment you’re getting juicy discounts on taxis in 40 easy steps.
Baidu Maps is the Google Maps of China but the main difference is that Google Maps is “content” with being a navigation and maps application and Baidu Maps wants to be a super appwhich has its pros and cons. The upside is that you have a lot of content that is somehow related to maps and travel; the downside is that all these extras have to be accessible somewhere and in the end, instead of having a sleek all-in-one app, what we find is a little monster. Also, a lot of this extra content is basically web pages that load in an embedded browser and the experience is not the same.
In Baidu Maps we find extras such as a list of useful travel expressions (Chinese <-> English) and a directory of travel blog articles related to the place we are visiting, as well as a system of currencies and rewards with which we can unlock , among other themes. By having, It contains up to a bunch of widgets: 15 in total.
A pop-up promoting a hotel directory, a list of useful travel phrases (in English), and a collection of travel blogs. All accessible from Baidu Maps
Son two different ways to understand android and perfectly valid, which show us the importance of the work done by Google: they are based on the same Android source code, but the result is very different.
In the West, Google is “leading” by example in the various versions of “Android with Google” that are being launched and in simpler, less dense applications, while In China other standards are imposed that make their apps virtually impossible to use, and not just because of the language. After this, I won’t complain anymore about Google Maps being too visually polluting.
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