Google Announces New Version Of Google Maps For iOS And Android Coming This Summer

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Google Maps is already one of the best mapping services on the planet, but Google isn’t content to rest on its laurels. At the Google I/O keynote this morning Google announced that it will launch a new version of Google Maps for iOS and Android later this year.

The new Google Maps will come with a simplified UI, as well as new features like real-time traffic, dynamic re-routing, reviews from Zagat and there will even be a dedicated Google Maps app for iPad.

One of the big new features in the Google Maps mobile app is Offers. The brand new Offers feature will show you when certain businesses are offering discounts on items. Offers will launch with a limited number of partners, including Starbucks, but more will surely be added soon.

Google is adding live coverage on traffic incidents around the world to Google Maps so you know if traffic is going to be backed up on your commute home. The new Dynamic Re-routing feature will work in tandem with live traffic data to change your route in real-time based on traffic data around you.

Even though Google has a rocky relationship with Apple, the company has made a dedicated Google Maps app for the iPad. The iPad app will have most of the same features as the mobile app, but it also comes with some search and discovery features that will help users find cool new places wherever they’re at.

There’s also a new desktop version of Google Maps that will come to browsers in the near future. The new desktop Google Maps has a new UI that uses that Map as the main interface. No longer will search results be displayed on the side of the map, but they will be overlaid directly onto the map. There are no more pins when you search for something. Instead, Google Maps will display all of the search results directly on the map. You can click on a dot to expand the information on a location to see reviews, hours of operations, street view, and offers.

The new Google Maps allows you to add landmarks to your own personalized version of Google Maps. Each user will carry their own version of Google Maps when they login so that you can remember all of your favorite places and get recommendations for other places based on your old searches.

You can sign up to preview the new desktop version of Google Maps right here. The updated iOS and Android apps will launch later this summer.