Google Maps Gets Chatty With a New Gemini-Powered Interface

There is a new button in Google Maps: “Ask Maps”. Google today began rolling out this new generative AI feature, an in-app conversational tool that combines data from Maps with a user experience similar to that of the company’s Gemini chatbot. It is designed to answer questions about locations and plan routes in the navigation app.

This is part of Google’s overall strategy to add Gemini to all of its products. (Like that Portlandia (sketch where the duo visits a store and puts bird stickers on everything in sight.) Earlier this week, Google added Gemini-based tools to its Workspace suite, including Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. And a few weeks before that, Gemini launched a way to take control of certain apps to perform tasks, like booking an Uber.

Ask Maps is aimed at Google Maps users in the United States and India for the first time. This launch is limited to mobile devices, available on Android and iOS, with a desktop version expected in the near future. You can’t turn off Ask Maps or hide it, just like most of Google’s new AI features.

Ask Maps appears as the first tab below the search bar. When someone taps it, Google offers personalized suggestions. For example, someone living in San Francisco might be encouraged to plan a drive to Muir Woods, including a stop for breakfast burritos, or explore vintage store routes for shopping in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

It is designed to be used when planning road trips. In an example provided by Google, Ask Maps created a solid itinerary for a nature getaway from the Grand Canyon to nearby Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The chatbot put together a three-day driving plan with several viewpoints and other popular stops marked along the route. Ask Maps ended this post with some tips for spending time in the dunes: “Rent a sandboard from the visitor center and grab some wax: it’s the key to speed.”

The conversational feature is an example of how Google leverages the data it stores about users to deliver personalized experiences. If Ask Maps records that you are vegetarian, it will reconfigure the restaurants included in the recommendations: no House of Prime Rib for a date in the city. The Gemini chatbot can now search your inbox and files for answers, and it’s another example of Google’s growing focus on AI-driven personalization.