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Google Live View — Google Maps now has AR enabled directions
With a beta feature called Live View, you can use augmented reality (AR) to better see which way to walk. Arrows and directions are placed in the real world to guide your way.
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David Berkowitz
I tried this as a beta user. TERRIBLE product. Slow, clunky. Way worse than just looking at a 2D map. The arrows constantly disappear. Surprised they released this at all.
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Had a chance to use this in Sydney last week. Fun idea but only practical for start of journey or if you have to stop because you're not sure where to go next.
How do I use this new feature on an iPhone? I don't see any new buttons or options that might turn this feature on.
Don't have access to the feature yet, but I'm really looking forward to trying it out. Seems like a good use of AR.
Is this designed for walking (/PT) directions only? Recently saw some news re: Apple patents for AR maps, intended to be used while driving 😬
Cool, I imagine it will be a massive drain on data especially when travelling but looking forward to trying it
@aaronoleary I would assume a battery drain but I'm not sure how this would require much if any more data than a standard set of directions.
I've been using it for a while (it rolled out to Local Guides some time ago). I haven't found it a huge battery drain, mostly because (despite the pictures) you use it to figure out the next step, then put it aside and start walking - it will complain at you if you try to walk with the phone up and "looking". It does help, particularly when you come up from a subway station and "where the heck am I" happens.
On Android, when I'm in a map with walking directions, there's a button called Start AR. It doesn't show up otherwise. I presume there's an equivalent in iOS - make sure you've got the latest version of Maps, of course, and it may take a while to roll out fully.
Sounds like vaporware, for places like NYC, due to the amount of intentional precision-fuzzing that is used to deter protestors and terrorists from coordinating locally.
This functionality is eating my battery. I tried coupe time using it but then I just fall back to my regular google maps.
Works surprisingly well! I've tried it on my trip to Washington. We'd usually stop/sit somewhere and figure out our next destination. This feature helps a lot just figuring out where to start going. After that, you don't really need to have it enabled, the old good way still works the best. The only time the old way doesn't work is when you're in downtown and there's many tall buildings around. Your gps signal is very weak and you don't know exactly where you are or to go. So the camera + map would help you a lot. Love it!
@ideaspies1 Do you have a newsletter? I just see a "login" button which has the option to register for the site, but I'd rather just enter an email instead of creating an account. You should use Mailchimp and put it in the header/footer of every page.
@jonnymaceachern thanks for asking. We didn't have a newsletter option as we were focussing on registrations so people could post ideas and comment. We are now testing the option but it doesn't pop up straight away so people get a chance to look at the ideas first. Can you please try it? www.IdeaSpies.com
It seems like something that would work perfectly on next iteration of smart glasses. Hopefully Apple would produce them - I don't want to feed any more data to surveillance capitalists (I already share far too much to Google). Such glasses would be heavy and hot, though - because of needed GPU and batteries to run AR; so we need to wait another 5 years or so.