Google has said that it’s adding a new augmented reality-powered capability to Live View in Maps which will allow users to visually search for restaurants, coffee shops and other businesses located nearby.
The all-new Live View feature has been announced in Maps, Search and Shopping.
According to the company, the all-new AR capabilities for Live View will start rolling out next week in countries including New York, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tokyo and Paris.
Now for the features.
The company has introduced a new feature ‘Search with Live View’ which will allow users to hold up their phones and scan nearby buildings. Upon doing that, Google Maps will automatically scan all the buildings, restaurants, and ATM Banks and will identify the area.
Apart from this, users will also be able to see information like which business is open, how busy it is, the price range of products and other such information.
Feeling hungry? Just type your favourite dish name in the Google Maps search bar and it will show all the nearby restaurants offering that dish. Other than this, users will also be able to see information like pricing, ingredients used to make that dish, and reviews among others.
The company has also come up with another feature dubbed an AR-powered shopping feature. With the help of this feature, users will be able to find the perfect shade of their foundation. Google Maps comes with 148 models which represent a diverse range of skin tones, genders, ages, face shapes, ethnicities and skin types.
With the help of that database, users will be able to visualise the perfect foundation shade for themselves.
Users will also get a filtered search for fast-charge stations compatible with their vehicle.
Lastly, the company concluded by mentioning that it is planning to expand its Accessible Places feature. This feature shows an icon on business profile pictures indicating if they are wheelchair accessible. This feature is already available for people in the US, Australia, Japan and the UK. However, it is now rolling out globally.
Furthermore, this feature will also be useful for users walking with a stroller or a cart, as they might want to know the availability of a ramp.
In order to use this feature, users can turn on the ‘Accessible Places’ setting in the Google Maps app. Then users will see a wheelchair icon on the business profile indicating that the place is a wheelchair chair. If there is a strikethrough, then it means that the place is not wheelchair friendly.
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