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Google Maps's new features help ease you back into navigating public spaces
Expanded crowdedness indicators with live per-car info in some cities, travel "Insights," and some tweaks to reviews, plus general advice
I hesitate to say this year is worse than last year, but there are still a lot of things we're adjusting to when it comes to day-to-day life — especially out and about while traveling. We might have been able to hunker down for the last year, but with things like work obligations and family that haven't seen us in ages, we can't stay at home forever. To make it all a bit easier, Google Maps is rolling out a few new tools to help you navigate the "new normal."
Timeline view on Google Maps gets new Trips tab, coming to Google Photos
If you're traveling, you can see your hotel's COVID-19 response in detail at google.com/travel
We'll make no judgment of whether you're traveling for the holidays or not — the time of year always seems to amp up the urgency of things. If you do, Google may let you know what your hotel is doing to keep the coronavirus at bay. Even if you don't, the company will be introducing a couple of new ways to look over your travel memories.
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For travelers that loved the Google Trips app for its travel planning and helpful discovery features, it's probably going to come as disappointing news that the search giant is making preparations to discontinue the app. The latest version update to Trips includes messaging that will inform users that the app is scheduled to be shut down and encourages users to seek out the features in other Google products.
A lot of planning for a trip typically takes place while a person is sat down with a PC — there's room to cross-reference prices, blow up the fine print, and open up a ton of tabs there. But until today, Google didn't really have a convenient hub for all of that information as well as things like weather forecasts and suggested guides on the desktop — sure, Google Trips might be a wonderful app, but it doesn't scratch that itch. Now, we finally have another option: google.com/travel
Travel is not a new area of interest for Google, with lots of customized cards in Search aimed at getting you the best deals on flights and hotels, as well as the dedicated Google Trips app to bring all of your bookings together and offer additional recommendations and guides. Further enhancements to Google Search are going to make it even more convenient for planning trips.
Travel and destination discovery apps are a dime a hundred (not even a dozen) on the Play Store, but there are still a few names I come back to again and again. Google's own Trips is one of them because it helps me organize everything as well as see popular places to visit, organize day trips, and get discounts on tours, but I have yet to find a nice app just for the discovery of new destinations. I usually resort to a simple Google search or check Atlas Obscura or Rough Guides, but this new app by Lonely Planet might dethrone those options.
The Gmail team is rolling out a new update today, bringing the current version up to 8.2. There aren't any visible changes turning up right away, but there are hints of a couple new and potentially interesting features. We may be getting a new intelligent label that collects trip-related emails so it's easier to find them in a pinch. There is also a new feature in development that will make it easy to transfer your non-Google accounts from one device to another.
In its quest to make our lives easier, Google has recently taken on the travel industry by giving us search tools for flights and hotels, as well as an app to help us plan and organize trips we've already booked. Google Search already shows when a slight adjustment to travel dates can save us money, but now it's adding more robust tools for people whose travel dates are more flexible.
Google Trips is one of the lesser-used Google apps - it was only released in April - but that's not to say it's not incredibly useful. When the time comes to plan a trip, the app should be the first thing you look at to decide what to do, where to eat, and check for any reserved tickets or other items. A new update, 0.0.42, for Trips has arrived on Google Play, adding some neat new functionality for even better ways to plan your trips.
Whether you travel for leisure or business, the logistics of crossing country or state borders are a nightmare. TripIt has been trying to simplify the process for years, providing travelers with a way to track their flight, hotel reservation, car rental, and other plans in one central place. The app just got better now thanks to a new addition: Traveler Profile.