Google Maps is a quintessential part of daily lives—be it for navigating to a place you haven’t been to before, to check how busy a restaurant is, or simply to scout a place before you visit it using the Street View feature.
Most of Google Maps’ features are dependent on location data, and the company has made sure that you have control over it thanks to tools like incognito mode and auto-delete, but the search giant is now doubling down on giving users more control.
In a new blog post, Google says that it is bringing the ability to save your location timeline on your device, delete activity from specific places, and the ability to tap the blue dot in maps to see things like whether location history is on, and what access Google Maps has.
On-Device Timeline And Encrypted Online Backups
This feature will ensure that your timeline is saved right on your device itself—giving you more control over your data. Like before, you can still delete it entirely, parts of it, or disable it.
However, by default, Google will now store up to only 3 months of timeline data, and this can be further increased as well. Or you can also choose to make an encrypted backup if the same to store online, and it won’t count towards your Google account storage.
Delete Activity Related To Specific Places
As you would have guessed, this allows users to delete visits to a specific place, searches you made, and even directions. This is going to be rolling out to Android and iOS users in the coming weeks.
Blue Dot Becomes Functional
The blue dot shows you where you are on maps but now it brings over location-based control right within your reach. “Just tap it, and at a glance, you’ll see whether your Location History or Timeline settings are turned on and whether you’ve given Maps access to your device’s location,” Google said. This, too, would be rolled out to both iOS and Android users in the coming weeks.
