What you need to know
- Google Maps’ Immersive View is finally appearing for users.
- A redditor has spotted Immersive View available for London and Berlin, at the moment.
- Immersive View is a 3D Maps feature that combines billions of Street Views and aerial imaging to create an interactable experience through cities.
- The rollout is still slow as users have commented that they have yet to receive it.
Google has been working on a few different features to help aid users in finding their way around big cities or to learn about them beforehand. Through a thread, it looks like users on Reddit have started receiving the Immersive View update Google Maps (via 9to5Google). The Tedditor’s photos are of London, but there was also a mention of Berlin being mapped out in this new viewing as well.
Google’s Immersive View was one of a few things mentioned at Google I/O 2022. This new view in Maps utilizes NeRF technology which Google states “accurately recreates the full context of a place including its lighting, the texture of materials and what’s in the background.” Through this, users can move through city streets all from their phones without needing to be in that particular place.
Immersive View was initially announced to have launched in early February, but users have had to wait and have only begun receiving it recently.
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The company stated that Immersive View would roll out for a few cities first: London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo. It’ll be a few months before Florence, Venice, Amsterdam, and Dublin receive the same 3D treatment.
Aside from viewing large cities in 3D, Immersive View lets users play with the slider to adjust the time of day and see how crowded the city may be at different times. Additionally, you can also adjust the weather thanks to the NeRF technology at the feature’s core. However, the user who posted the feature’s rollout mentions that cars appear to be missing at the moment when using it.
This may seem like a neat and fun feature, but one Redditor’s comment about it came with a warning. The user said that the feature would not only heat up their phone but would soak up around 2GB of data in just half an hour of use.
Users can also take advantage of Google Maps’ Live View, which is currently available in all of the cities the company is currently rolling out Immersive View. There is also the “Accessible Places” section of Maps which details information about wheelchair-friendly places before setting out for the day.
The rollout is still slow as users on Reddit discuss still not seeing anything as of yet. Android Central staff have also not received Immersive View, with some cities only showing 3D videos of landmarks in the photo gallery. That said, when the feature does land on your device, this is likely where you’ll find the feature, as it should be marked as “Immersive View.”
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