- Soon users will have the option to use the Live View Search in AR on Google Maps.
- Maps in AR is a unique way to search for cafes, banks and other buildings using your phone’s camera to get more details.
One of Google Maps’ most anticipated features will be available by the end of this month. Augmented reality has been a big part of the company’s planning in recent years, and Maps will benefit from it once again. We’ve all heard of Live View, which is available on Maps, but users will soon be able to use Live View Search in AR on Google Maps. The development is not entirely unexpected, as Google discussed its integration during the Google I/O keynote earlier this year. It did mention the feature in detail around September, and users in select parts of the world will be able to enjoy its benefits by the end of November.
Using AR, Live View can show you the closest restaurants, cafes, and other buildings by simply pointing your phone’s camera at them and receiving all the details. You can also get information about the shops without having to stand in front of them, which is useful on a busy street.
To use the Live View search feature in AR, Maps will require access to your phone’s camera. Google is basically deriving all of this data from Street View images and implementing its AI and AR technology to provide you with this one-of-a-kind experience.
You can get in-depth details such as busy hours for a cafe, what are its ratings and also know if it is open or not. You can get these details for cafes, restaurants, banks and ATMs among others, as per Google in this blog post. But as is the case, Google is limiting the availability of Live View Search in AR to select cities, which includes Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and more for now.
The feature will be available on Google Maps which will be getting an update sometime this week, after which you can open the camera through Maps and use this AR feature to search in a different way.
