Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Maps is adding a new tool that lets you prepare lists of destinations extracted from screenshots.
- Maps will analyze screenshots shared to its library, and can handle multiple locations on a single screen.
- The feature is first coming to iOS this week, with Android support following soon.
Taking a screenshot is one of the most very basic things a smartphone can do, and while we’ve had the ability to do that for the better part of forever, recently screenshots have started becoming a lot more useful than just a quick-and-dirty way to share app content. Tools like Pixel Screenshots tap into the power of modern AI to extract actionable information from the mountain of screenshots we accumulate. Now Google’s sharing one of the next ways you might be finding a new use for screenshots, as it reveals a handy travel-planning tool for Maps.
When we’re thinking about places we might want to go, inspiration arrives from all angles. Maybe you saw a cool-looking destination on social media, looked up some blogs about visiting in your browser, and checked out some reviews from fellow travelers. If you want to keep track of all that stuff for later, grabbing a few screenshots along the way makes perfect sense.
Google Maps is adding a new tool that allows the app to go through screenshots like those, identify points of interest in them, and then give you the option to add them to a list for your future reference. If you choose to take advantage of it, Maps will let you scan new screenshots you take on your phone, and can even handle messy situations when you’ve got multiple destinations on-screen at once.
This already sounds pretty useful for planning our summer travel, but Android users might be in for a bit of a wait; this is one of those rare situations where Google’s getting the ball rolling on iOS first. While the company has confirmed that this new screenshot-parsing functionality for Maps is in the works for Android, as well, right now Google’s not revealing an ETA any more specific than “coming soon.” This is also English-only, at least at first, and Google hasn’t yet shared any specific plans for expanding that support.
