The Google Maps UI has largely been unchanged for the past several years, but that’s now changing with pretty significant redesigns across key surfaces, including when searching for directions.
For starters, tapping a place reveals a new sheet design that features close and share buttons in the top-right corner. There’s also a background sheet just behind the one you’re interacting with.
Another change is how locations are no longer fullscreen and reveal a sliver of the map background at the top. This sheet approach helps preserve context.
Current
Redesign
The biggest redesign in Google Maps today is to the directions search experience. At the top, this UI no longer goes edge-to-edge and is now just for entering addresses. It makes everything feel a little bit less cluttered.
Top comment by Cristian Silvestre Sánchez
Liked by 41 people
In a way it’s a change that I quite like, but why does it seem like there is another card behind each card?
It is as if there were several cards grouped together when this is not the case in some of the screenshots
The carousel of different transportation methods has been moved to the bottom. This is a nice reachability improvement on mobile, while swiping up reveals that this is also no longer a fullscreen UI. This lets you see the map in more navigation methods, like public transport.
Current
Redesign
These redesigns make everything look a little bit less crowded. We’re seeing these changes available on one account today on Android (version 11.113.x), but it’s not yet widely rolled out. This should also be coming to iOS, but we’re not seeing it just yet.
More on Google Maps:
Google Maps for Android now shows you the weather
Android Auto more widely rolling out 3D buildings in Google Maps, enabled by default
Google Assistant Driving Mode is not dead, but it’s now just a voice bar
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