Google Maps
About Google Maps
Google Maps owns everyday navigation for drivers, pedestrians, and transit commuters, though it explicitly leaves out specialized routing for emergency vehicles and oversized trucks. For standard travel, it acts as a central hub, combining turn-by-turn directions with options for walking, cycling, public transit, and local bike or scooter rentals.
The core mapping system relies on live traffic monitoring to automatically reroute around sudden incidents and road closures. Beyond real-time voice guidance, it offers offline map downloads for areas with spotty cell coverage, street-level previews, and Immersive View to check weather and landmark layouts ahead of time. Walking directions can even project onto your physical environment using your device camera.
It doubles as a business directory, allowing you to filter restaurants by price or hours, order takeout, book hotel stays, and check store busyness before arriving. That broad scope comes with substantial access demands, requesting permissions for precise location, camera, microphone, storage, and contacts. Not every feature reaches all cities, but for standard point-A to point-B trips, it covers the essentials thoroughly.
- Offline NavigationDownload map areas in advance to navigate and search without an active cellular connection.
- Live ReroutingMonitors current traffic conditions and automatically adjusts your driving route around delays.
- Immersive PreviewsCheck landmark layouts, entrances, and upcoming weather forecasts before visiting a destination.
- Camera OverlayProject walking directions directly onto the physical environment using Lens in Maps.
Permissions
- Identity
- find accounts on the device
- Identity
- add or remove accounts
- Contacts
- find accounts on the device
- Contacts
- read your contacts
- Location
- approximate location (network-based)
- Location
- precise location (GPS and network-based)
- Photos/Media/Files
- read the contents of your USB storage
- Photos/Media/Files
- modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
- Storage
- read the contents of your USB storage
- Storage
- modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
- Camera
- take pictures and videos
- Microphone
- record audio
- Wi-Fi connection information
- view Wi-Fi connections
- Other
- mock location sources for testing
- Other
- view network connections
- Other
- pair with Bluetooth devices
- Other
- access Bluetooth settings
- Other
- send sticky broadcast
- Other
- change network connectivity
- Other
- connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
- Other
- disable your screen lock
- Other
- measure app storage space
- Other
- full network access
- Other
- control Near Field Communication
- Other
- read sync settings
- Other
- run at startup
- Other
- use accounts on the device
- Other
- control vibration
- Other
- prevent device from sleeping
- Other
- toggle sync on and off
- Other
- install shortcuts
- Other
- read Google service configuration
What's new
Thanks for using Google Maps! This release brings bug fixes that improve our product to help you discover new places and navigate to them.<br><br>Become a beta tester: http://goo.gl/vLUcaJ
Common questions
Can I use Google Maps without internet access?
Yes, you can save maps to your device ahead of time to search and navigate in areas with bad signal.
Does Google Maps work for commercial trucks?
No, the app is not intended for oversized vehicles or emergency vehicles.
What permissions does Google Maps request?
It requests access to location, contacts, device identity, photos/storage, camera, microphone, and Wi-Fi connection info.
Get Google Maps
Turn-by-turn directions, public transit details, and local place discovery in one app
Google LLC
More from Google LLC
Alternatives
