Google Maps has been a constant travelling companion for years. While the app isn’t perfect, it’s always useful, whether I want to find the closest restaurant or check traffic conditions. However, I’ve recently turned to Citymapper for public transport and Waze for driving directions, as each app offers better features for its niche. Google Maps, despite its usefulness, has therefore turned into a backup app for me. But thanks to a new AI-powered feature, I expect to be using it much more.
I’ve been sceptical of Gemini since its inception, as Google hasn’t managed to reduce the frequency at which it hallucinates to a reliable level for me. The best AI features from Google are those that work with information you already have, like Pixel Screenshots or NotebookLM. Google Maps’ new feature, which pulls locations from your screenshots, is something I plan to use on all future trips.
I travel a lot, and frequently forget where I’ve been
I’m terrible at keeping notes
Source: Google
I travel outside of my country at least once a year, and while these trips tend to involve well-trodden paths, I love checking out what’s new since my last visit. My friends will text me suggestions, or I’ll Google things like “new restaurants opened here in 2025.” I’ll try to save these places in a list in Google Maps for reference later, but often my source comes in the form of a travel blog or news article. It’s easy for me to forget these places, as I’m terrible at taking notes.
Google Maps’ new AI-powered feature searches your screenshots (with your permission) and pulls all the place names it can find. These names are then automatically added to saved places in Google Maps. So if you take a screenshot of a restaurant website’s landing page, Google Maps will save the place to a list for easy reference later.
To me, this feature sounded like the solution to a problem I’ve been having for years. I’m constantly taking screenshots of places I want to visit, then immediately forgetting them. Having Google Maps take up the slack sounded ideal, and if the AI tool misses a couple places from my screenshots (as I was sure it would) then it’ll still be a significant upgrade. The only catch was, it wasn’t available on Android in time for my recent trip.
Google Maps’ AI-powered screenshots are a breeze to use
Even those unfamiliar with AI can use it
At the time of writing, this feature is still not available in my Google Maps app on Android. However, I was keen to give it a go, so I enlisted my family member and her iPhone to test out the feature.
Over a brief voice call ahead of our trip, I showed her where to find the screenshots tab in Google Maps, but after that, she was on her own. Fortunately, this tool is easy to use, even for a Luddite. In the week leading up to our trip, I sent her various screenshots of places I found interesting, which she saved to her phone along with screenshots of destinations she found herself. By the time of our trip, Google Maps had saved all these places to a list, including some bonus locations I hadn’t expected.
When Google Maps searches your screenshots for place names, it can find more than what you thought you saved. For example, I took a screenshot of a blog post describing a seafood restaurant I found interesting, which Google Maps dutifully saved into my mother’s phone. But it also identified the names of restaurants that the writer had also recommended as being similar in quality and taste. Admittedly, we went to neither of these alternative places, but the experience showed us how useful this feature was for discovering new places.
I was sceptical of this feature ahead of time, as my previous method for sharing recommendations was through direct Google Maps links. While this is still useful, Google Maps’ AI-powered screenshot feature removes a significant roadblock when I discover a place through other sources. Knowing that Google Maps will pick up on my screenshots means I’m taking more screenshots of potential destinations than ever, awaiting the moment when the feature comes to Android.
This AI feature solves an existing problem for once
I’ve rarely found Gemini to be a useful tool. I prefer to rely on my research abilities to summarize documents, and it’s frustrating having to constantly weed out hallucinations from its responses. However, this Gemini-powered screenshots tool in Google Maps proved to be a fantastic asset for my holiday, even though I wasn’t able to directly use it myself.
Watching my family use screenshots in Google Maps makes me excited for when it finally arrives on Android. For anyone who loves researching new places but always forgets to note them down, it’s an invaluable tool.
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