I don’t have the time and energy to travel to explore new places several times a year.
This doesn’t leave much space for the widely popular Google Maps to enter the list of the best apps I use regularly on my Android phone.
However, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about Google Maps. For the little traveling I do to explore new places, I rely on Google Maps.
Google Maps gets most things right and is a near-perfect navigation tool for casual users like me.
While perfection is subjective, Google Maps deserves criticism for not doing enough to address some of its biggest criticisms.
I, for one, have a major complaint about its approach to a simple aspect of navigation. I understand the rationale behind it, but that doesn’t serve me well.
It makes navigation feel far more complicated, and I’m tired of how Google still hasn’t fixed the issue.
Google Maps gets this simple thing about navigation wrong
I have never used the pinch gesture to zoom in or out while holding my phone in one hand since it broke my OnePlus 7 Pro.
Instead, when I only need to zoom in on a specific area, I usually use double-tap.
It’s far safer than using a pinch gesture to zoom in or out when using the phone with one hand, especially if you drive or walk.
However, the biggest problem with this approach is that it doesn’t offer any option to zoom out. So, you’re left with either the same old and risky pinch gesture or a smarter double-tap trick.
I use the double-tap trick because it allows me to both zoom in and out. All I have to do is double-tap, keep my finger on the screen on the second tap, and then swipe up to zoom out and swipe down to zoom in.
It has been in Google Maps for a long time, but I just discovered it recently. I rejoiced when I first found it, but after using it a few times, I started wondering why something as simple as zooming has to be this complicated.
While the double-tap, followed by a slide up and down, works, it isn’t the easiest way to zoom in or out. Its biggest drawback is its reliability — sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
I may be taking too long between taps for the gesture to work properly. But this could happen to anyone, including power users.
The gestures are too big a trade-off for the sake of a cleaner UI in Google Maps.
I have some ideas for Google to fix it
It isn’t that big of a problem to solve if Google has the intent. The easiest way to fix it would be to introduce “+” and “-” buttons in the UI, or at least make them optional.
However, buttons feel too old-fashioned for this decade, and they aren’t the best replacement for gestures because the former lacks the same level of precision when zooming.
Instead, a more clever solution would be something like a slider at the bottom, or anywhere close to the thumb, to zoom in or out.
If it’s placed vertically, users will be able to swipe up or down to zoom in or out, while a horizontal slider will mean swiping right or left.
Whether Google uses buttons or a slider, it’ll occupy a certain space, which can obstruct the map content. But this isn’t a difficult problem to solve, either.
Since zooming is something we need only in certain situations, a small button that displays the slider when users tap it will be the best way to address the obstruction issue.
For someone who finds the gestures too complicated for something as simple as zooming, an option in the Google Maps settings to enable the slider in the UI will solve the problem.
I’m not against gestures; I need better choices for casual users.
I won’t switch to another navigation app for this Google Maps flaw
There are some solid reasons to avoid Google Maps in specific scenarios, and many of my colleagues at Android Police feel very strongly about some of the open source alternatives to Google’s navigation app.
I understand the sentiment, but I have a very different set of expectations from a navigation app. Google Maps ticks all the boxes, except for one: a seamless zooming experience for easy navigation.
I’ll admit that I previously thought about trying something else to see if Google Maps competitors are doing better at this, but I couldn’t find any.
When I look back, the scouting feels like a waste of time.
You can read my frustration as sour grapes, but when I think about how little I need to use one-handed zoom nowadays, the current gestures in the Google Maps UI don’t feel like an absolute dealbreaker.
I don’t see myself giving up on Google Maps, at least not until I commute frequently enough to get severely impacted by the gesture-driven zooming.
Nevertheless, I’ll rejoice the day I see a superior system on Google Maps, regardless of how much I commute.
