Google Maps is getting a new feature that you either love or dislike

Google Maps is quite the handy helper-app in many parts of the world. While it is not excellent everywhere, many use it to find restaurants, shops, places of interest, or for directions.

Soon, Google Maps is getting a new feature that is using Google’s Gemini AI to identify places in screenshots you take so that you can save them to a list.

Here is how Google describes the feature:

If you ever have trouble keeping track of all of the screenshots you take of travel blogs, news articles or social media posts when you’re researching places to go for an upcoming trip, you’ll want to try out this new Google Maps feature. It uses Gemini capabilities to identify places mentioned in your screenshots and helps save them to a list for you, making travel planning a breeze.

Taking screenshots? Identifying the locations of place? Adding them to Google Maps? It may sound like a niche thing for many.

Good news is that you need to enable the feature to start using it. If you do not, none of your screenshots get analyze by Gemini.

Here are Google’s instructions on using the new feature:

1. Navigate to the You tab.
2. At the top of the You tab, you’ll see a Screenshots list with a badge that says “Try it out!” Tap the badge. This will open a video showing you how the feature works — you’ll even be able to test it out alongside the video.
3. You’ll see a request to allow Google Maps access to your photos. Choose when it has access. (There’s also a manual option if you don’t want to give Maps full access, more on that later.)
4. Next time you take a screenshot that includes location information, head to Google Maps after.
5. If Maps recognizes a place, a message will pop up telling you that it has places ready for you to review.
6. Tap “review,” and decide if you want to save the image to your screenshots list or not. (You can add these images to other lists later, too, if you want.)
7. You also have the option to upload screenshots manually: When you’re in the app select the Screenshots list under the You tab. From there, you can upload screenshots manually. The rest of the process is the same!
8. You’ll see the saved places directly on your map or can get to the list through You tab to access while you’re on the go.

It sounds as if the image needs to have location information for the feature to work, but Google also says that the feature uses Gemini to identify locations. Google added several safeguards to the process to block users from using the feature unknowingly.

So, who is this feature for? Google gives the answer in the introduction. It is for people how take screenshots of travel blogs, news articles, or social media. It may also work for users who save images that they find, as they can upload them to Google Maps to see if Gemini can identify the locations.

It can be handy, if you do your research mostly in apps like Instagram or TikTok, especially if location information is not revealed by the poster.

Those who do not can safely ignore the feature, as it needs manual activation.

Note: Google may gain access to all screenshots that you take on your devices, if you enable the feature.

Now You: what is your take on the feature? Handy and you would use it, or something that you would not want to use no matter what?