Google Maps
Google LLC
Screenshots
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
- Identityfind accounts on the device
- Identityadd or remove accounts
- Contactsfind accounts on the device
- Contactsread your contacts
- Locationapproximate location (network-based)
- Locationprecise location (GPS and network-based)
- Photos/Media/Filesread the contents of your USB storage
- Photos/Media/Filesmodify or delete the contents of your USB storage
- Storageread the contents of your USB storage
- Storagemodify or delete the contents of your USB storage
- Cameratake pictures and videos
- Microphonerecord audio
- Wi-Fi connection informationview Wi-Fi connections
- Othermock location sources for testing
- Otherview network connections
- Otherpair with Bluetooth devices
- Otheraccess Bluetooth settings
- Othersend sticky broadcast
- Otherchange network connectivity
- Otherconnect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
- Otherdisable your screen lock
- Othermeasure app storage space
- Otherfull network access
- Othercontrol Near Field Communication
- Otherread sync settings
- Otherrun at startup
- Otheruse accounts on the device
- Othercontrol vibration
- Otherprevent device from sleeping
- Othertoggle sync on and off
- Otherinstall shortcuts
- Otherread 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.