Since Google cars pass through the city’s busiest streets with some frequency, Google Maps provides a sort of time jump with the view that was captured in specific years. From mobile you can’t jump through time as such, you can navigate through specific years using Street View. We tell you how.
Google has not only revolutionized digital mapping by offering free maps and satellite views to everyone, but it has also done the same with point-to-point GPS navigation: Google Maps and Navigation are the standard apps for cartography. Additionally, Google introduced an experimental aspect that proved key in Maps: Street View. The real view of the streets has been a revolution year after year
Contemplate from your mobile what the street looked like years ago
La Sagrada Familia over time on Google Maps for Android. From left to right: 2008, 2014 and 2022
Street View cars travel street by street scanning the environment from 3D photos to compose a realistic view of any place without visiting it. Google plans the renewal of the view according to the importance of the streets. And it stores scans so it’s possible to jump to previous years as if Google Maps were the mythical DeLorean.
Mobile apps do not yet include the time picker in Street View, neither the Street View app itself nor Google Maps. In iOS, the year in which the photographic view was captured appears, but it is not possible to modify it. To do this, no other choice than to go through the web version.
The Google Maps app for Android does not allow jumping directly in time, but rather navigating through specific years. To achieve this, you need to do the following:
- Open Google Maps in the web browser. Valid only for desktop browser: Google Maps does not offer time jumping in the mobile version, nor even the activation of desktop mode.
- Find the street you want to view and click the Street View tile.
- Note that in the box that appears in the upper left area of the screen: the last date of the photos is displayed there. Click on.
- You’ll see a year picker appear with all the dates Street View passed the street. Choose the one you want.
- Click on the thumbnail to jump to the specific year: you will navigate as the street looked in times gone by.
- Now click on the three menu items that appear in the upper left box and click on “Share or insert an image“.
- Copy the link and send it to your mobile: when you click on it, Google Maps will open in the chosen year.
- You can navigate on your mobile according to the year you have selected: Google Maps will show you this year’s 3D view wherever you go. To return to the present, exit Street View to return to the Google Maps overview.
Time jumping is not yet available directly on mobile. But since allow you to browse previous years simply by receiving the link, it’s surely a matter of time (wink, wink) that the selector will finally appear for apps. This seems to us a sufficiently important feature that it is only found in the web browser.
