Get Into Maps

Maps Search Link

You can, of course, launch your Maps app by tapping the Maps shortcut, but if you've been following along, you know there are a few other ways to pull up an address in Maps:

 

• Enter an address into the search box on your home screen (or click your hardware Search button) by typing or using voice input, then click the link that should come up first in your browser. It will open directly in your Maps application (or at least ask if that's where you want it to open).
• Open your Contacts list and, if you've spent some time filling out addresses for your friends and business acquaintances, click the address from their contact sheet.
• Create shortcuts for your most-visited addresses on your home screen (discussed in the "10 Things to Do Right Away on Your Android Phone" tutorial).

However you land in the Maps app, you'll find Maps is one of the most powerful and feature-rich apps on your Android.

Getting Around Maps

The main view of the Maps app works much like Google Maps works on your browser in the internet, with some finger-friendly modifications. You can pinch and expand with your fingers to zoom in and out, or use the +/- magnifying buttons that appear in the lower-right corner.

Your Maps view should generally load with a rough frame on your location, and it will try to use either GPS, Wi-Fi, or cellular triangulation to get closer. For a more precise look at where your phone is right now, hit the Menu button and click "My Location" (or the little blue button in the lower-right you can enable through a "Labs" feature, detailed later).

Hit your phone's Menu button and you'll get your main deck of tools:

• Search: Just like it sounds, it's how you enter an address to show on the map, or look for points of interest ("pizza boston MA," "ann taylor cleveland," "library buffalo ny")
• Directions: Brings up the directions prompt, pre-loaded with "My Location" as the starting point. We'll point out the particulars of Directions in just a bit.
• Layers: Decide what kinds of nearby places and information is shown on the map. More on Layers, another rich sub-category, in just a bit.
• My Location: Adjusts the map and shows a bright blue dot where it thinks you are, based on what Maps can glean from your phone's GPS antenna (if you have it turned on), Wi-Fi information (again, if active), or rough cellular triangulation.
• Latitude: Or "Join Latitude," if you're not a member of Google's social network that's based on location check-ins.
• More: Brings up a sub-menu with:
  • Clear Map: Wipes away any search results, directions, or other data you've got showing.
  • Starred Items: Show a straight-up list of items you've starred in Google Maps, either from your desktop or mobile devices.
  • Labs: Shows a list of more experimental Maps features you can enable—some of them very handy (Traffic with Labels, as-the-crow-flies Measure tool), some esoteric (exact geo-coordinates).
  • Switch Account: Use a different Google account, so you can pull up different Starred Items, search history, and so on.
  • Help/Terms, Privacy & Notices/About: The boring stuff.

Seeing What's Nearby

So you know now that "My Location" shows where you are, and "Search" can help you find the next place you want to go, but Maps also offers a few ways to get a look at what's near you or near a place you want to go, without having to know street addresses.

"Get Anywhere" Feature

Want to get a rough bearing on street numbers near a certain spot, or see if there's a particular business nearby? Press down and hold on any spot on the map. You'll get an instant picture of the view from the street as captured by Google's car cameras, along with an address range and description of nearby points. But the really cool stuff is what shows up when you click on that pointer "bubble."

Clicking the On Map "Bubble"

It's a geo-geek dream. The upper-left corner has the address, city, and ZIP code, along with the distance from your location. The upper-right has the Street View thumbnail, but also an empty "Star" icon, which you can click to "Starred Items," where you'd keep a list of frequently visited spots or points of interest. The buttons below provide quick access to, from left, seeing the spot on the map again, getting directions or turn-by-turn Navigation to this spot, a direct calling link if it's a listed business, and a full-fledged Street View exploration.

"What's Nearby" Option

Underneath the buttons are list items that are more like additional buttons. "What's nearby?" pops up a list of the five closest spots that Google can find, which you can click to bring up that new place in this same black detail screen. "Search nearby" brings you back to the search box with that particular location as a boundary. "Share this place" shoots up your list of share-friendly apps (Twitter, Facebook, email, etc.), and "Report a problem" sends notice to the Maps team that an address, phone number, or whatever else you're reporting is wrong.

If you search out or click on a particular business or notable spot, your screen might look a lot busier:

Web Information and Sharing Opportunities

Maps aggregates reviews from sites like Yahoo!, CitySearch, Yelp, and other community sites and creates an average score from one to five stars, with color coding so you get the idea at a glance. You also get options to "Buzz about this place," using Google's Buzz social network, or add the place to your contacts list for easy calling later.

Seeing More with Layers

Layers Options

Maps' Layers tool shows you interesting or helpful data points nearby without making you search for it. Hit your Menu key and choose Layers (or click the tiny button in the lower-left corner, if you've enabled it in Labs). You'll get quite a lot to choose from. "Traffic" shows traffic conditions, in color stripes ranging from quiet green to busy red, based on state data, news reports, and other Google-powered apps using GPS monitors at the moment (seriously). "Satellite" gives you overhead pictures of an area instead of abstracted maps, "Terrain" brings up topographic lines, and "Buzz" and "Latitude" show what people have been saying or doing at places in those Google-powered social networks. If you've saved previous driving directions as a map layer in Google Maps, you'll have those available, too. But wait, there's more! Click the "More Layers" option to see.

More Layers

"My Maps" is a sub-menu that will show plotted points that you've saved as a particular map, or that you've imported from other Maps data. In other words, if you set up a map of the best places to get a Reuben in New York City and saved it as "Lowell's Gotham Reuben-stravaganza," you can pull it up from this My Maps offering and see all those delicatessens and corner joints on your mobile device. Google's explained how to get started with My Maps, and you can search for "My Maps Help" to find it. "Bicycling" shows bike paths and designated bicycle lanes, "Wikipedia" points out landmarks or businesses discussed on the massive user-edited encyclopedia, and "Transit Lines" shows, well, just what you'd think. "Favorite Places" is a fun/odd little add-on: pick a city (New York, Bangkok, Paris, etc.) and a person (Al Gore, Kevin Rose, Yo-Yo Ma, et al.), and you'll see favorite spots mapped all over.

Star Items to Save Serious Time

Starring Items in Maps

You might notice those "star" options wherever you look in Maps on Android—or you might miss them entirely. That'd be a shame, because they're great at saving you time, especially when you're usually trying to get directions as fast as possible. The most convenient way to make use of stars is to open a browser on a standard computer, sign into Google Maps with your Google/Gmail account, then search out a few of the places you most frequently head to, or pick out places you're going on a road trip, vacation, whatever. Click the star icon next to their names when you pick them out, and that star-iness will instantly sync to your Google account. Next time you're in Maps on Android, hit that Bookmark icon, and you can quickly pick from your list of starred items rather than typing out a name or address. Need to prune down your list of starred items? Head to Maps in a computer browser and hit the "My Maps" link on the left while signed in, or open up Maps on your Android, hit your Menu key, choose "Starred Items" from the More sub-menu, and pick off the no-longer-starry places.

Get Your Bearings with Street View

Street View

Street View uses Google's impressive collection of car-mounted camera shots of just about every drivable surface in the U.S. (and other countries) to give you a heads up on what you're looking for when you're searching for something. In other words, it keeps you from knocking on the wrong door, or blowing past your destination on a one-way street.

Street View Menu

When you click the Street View icon on the black details page of a search result, or a spot you pressed your thumb on, you'll get a view from the middle of the street where you were looking. You can rotate your view 360 degrees around by scrolling with your finger, zoom in on a particular sight by double-tapping it (or using the magnifying icons that will appear in the lower right), and move up and down streets by clicking the arrows you'll see on the street. You can also hit the Menu key to access any of those movement or zoom functions.

Note that the Menu button brings up one truly neat function: "Compass mode." Enable this, and your view in Street View mode rotates and tilts depending on which way you're turned. It's a combination of sensors in the phone and location data that do it, and it's pretty darned neat.

Getting Directions

If you've click the Directions button from the menu options, or hit the link off the details page for a particular post, you'll first get a drop-down prompt:

Directions Drop Down Prompt

In most cases, the first box, the start point, will be auto-filled with your phone's idea of where you are. The second box down is your destination. You can change either location manually, or click the bookmark-style icon to the right and get a few more convenient options: Contacts, after which you'll choose a person you've plugged in an address for; Point on map, which will ask you to tap somewhere; and Starred items, to choose from a list of locations you've previously starred on this phone or in another Google Maps session.

Underneath the two locations in the Directions prompt, you'll see buttons for the mode of transportation you'd like Maps to consider: car, public transit (bus and rail/subway, mostly), bicycle, or walking. The changes in route depend on where you live, but Maps generally makes smart adjustments based on this choice—less busy streets for walkers and bikers, picking the next closest stop for a bus or train if Maps knows the schedule, etc.

When you've got your start and end points in place, hit "Go."

Set start and end points and get directions

After your phone gets the goods from Google, you'll get a read-out of the turn-by-turn directions, along with options to see them laid out on either an overhead map, or as turn-by-turn Navigation (which we're just about to detail). If you click on any of the steps shown in the directions, you'll be taken to that spot on the Map.

Click on a step in the directions to be taken there on the map

From that spot on the map, you can zoom in, move around, and do anything else you'd normally do on a map—including turning on Layers to see nearby points of interest. You can also move forward or back in the steps needed to get there with the left and right-pointing arrows. This is the main mode of getting directions in Maps. It's useful for when you've got a willing navigator to click through the steps, or if you're low on battery or just not into setting up a full Navigation connection, though that's pretty easy, too. Hit the list-style icon in the lower left to get back to your directions.

Directions Menu

What you see in the directions list is Google's standard choice for getting from where you said you were to where you said you wanted to go. Being humans, though, we often take detours, encounter construction or massive traffic, and occasionally want to get back home. Hitting the Menu key is how you fix that. From your pop-up options, you can reverse your route, or hit "Update route" to have your phone try to figure out where you are and re-route the directions from that point. "See map" and "Report a problem" do just what you'd expect (though, remember, the "problem" is with the route you're given, not the app itself).

In the Options sub-menu, you'll get two useful filters to check off: "Avoid Highways" and "Avoid Tolls." Check these off, hit "Update," and Google will re-write your path for you.

When you've got a serious drive to take on, you should opt for Navigation over Maps' own directions. It's automatic, smart, and very good at doing what it does.

Using Navigation

Destination Menu

You can launch Navigation on your Android phone by loading up the "Navigation" app from your app tray, by choosing "Navigate" from the options in a set of directions, or through a direct directions shortcut you can place on your home screen (see the "10 Things to Do Right Away" tutorial).

Voice Input

Even more convenient, though, is hitting the Voice Input button on your search box, or holding down the Search button on your hardware, and speaking something that starts with "Navigate to." It's best used for non-specifics—it won't likely pick up standard street addresses with much accuracy, for example—but that openness also makes it genius. You can name a business and get options to navigate to the closest locations. You can say "JFK" and Google will prompt you to navigate to John F. Kennedy International Airport. Theoretically, you can say something like "Navigate to BodyWorlds," and if your local science museum has the icky-fascinating exhibit, Google will pick up on it and send you there. Note that this also works if you say "Directions to," which brings up the standard Maps directions instead of the turn-by-turn Navigate.

However you launch Navigation, the app wants to make sure you've enabled a GPS connection when you start it. If you haven't, you'll be brought to the Settings screen to tackle that. If you launched Navigation from its own application icon, you'll be asked to type in or speak a destination, or pick it from your contacts, Starred Items (see how useful they are?), or recent destinations.

Navigating with Nearby Restaurants, Parking, etc.

When you're driving, Navigation arranges itself so all the information you actually need to know right now—what you're doing next, in how far, and how much time is left in the trip—is made big and easily seen at a glance. As you approach each turn, Navigation's computer narrator speaks the suggestion out loud: "Turn left on X drive." Then again, you might hear nothing—Navigation seems to, in the latest version, align its volume with whatever your system volume is set at. If you're frequently setting your phone on vibrate, you may have to hit your volume-up button to raise the volume of the Navigation narrator.

Night Mode

It's worth noting that, when using Navigation after sunset in your location, you'll get the "Night Mode," which reduces the number of streets shown and inverts the colors to make your directions more clear.

Find Out Way More About Your Route

Your current/next direction is in the Top Bar

The very top shows what you're doing now, or will be doing very soon, like staying on a route, turning right or left, etc., with mileage, exit numbers, or next road numbers displayed. If there are two directions in quick succession, Navigation will add a little thumbnail hint on the right-hand side as to what happens next. You can also tap on the top bar to bring up a Maps-style, click-to-advance preview of upcoming turns, which we'll detail in just a bit.

Main Map Screen

The main map screen shows your progress in a three-quarter overhead view, with your anticipated route in blue and your current location marked by a bold blue arrow. Zooming in and out is handled automatically: farther out when you're speeding along, closer up when you're on slower streets. If you have any Layers enabled, or have run a search to show certain points in particular, they'll show up here. If you've scrolled away to check out something, you'll see the big blue Navigation icon in the lower-left. Press it, and you'll zoom back to where you are.

Bottom Time/Road Location Bar

The very bottom shows how much time is left in your route, along with the road you're currently on (though I've blocked that out for privacy in this screenshot). Notice the tiny light to the left of the countdown timer? It's telling you about the traffic outlook for the rest of your trip. Green is good, red is bad, and if you click on the time or light, you'll get a full view of the traffic outlook, with road highlights and markers for construction.

Press the Top Bar to Activate a Step by Step Map Mode

As noted above, pressing on the top bar with your current action in large text, activates a step-by-step mode that will seem familiar from Maps, the difference being the perspective. Arrows will show up, and you can press them to get a preview of what you'll be doing next. This is helpful when you've got some time before you head into a city during rush hour, or other situations where you don't know the terrain.

So that's a pretty helpful close-up view of what's going on up ahead. Even more helpful? Hit the Street View icon, and you'll see exactly what you're supposed to do—on a real street picture:

Street View Preview

Actually, that's just a Street View preview. Click that cute little "Street View Man" and you'll get full access to explore where you're going to be turning—though, really, it's someone else who's not driving who should be looking this up.

Street View

Search and Layers

Like Maps, Navigation can also show you "Layers" of content while you're driving along, including views of traffic, a "Satellite" mode that switches from simple maps to aerial pictures, and can also show banks, restaurants, and other car-friendly spots. Hit the Menu button while in Navigation, and you'll see an option for Layers, among others.

Bank, Food, and Arial Picture Layers

Navigation Menu

What else lurks in the Menu offerings? "Exit Navigation" and "Mute" do what you'd guess, and "More" offers some helpful stuff—including a direct path to changing your destination while inside Navigation.

Taking a Detour with Navigation

"Search" does something pretty great. Rather than just pulling up a result and offering to get you there, it puts anything matching your search term. So if you needed to find a shoe repair spot on your cross-country trek, just search out "shoe" or "footwear" (or both, actually), and you'll see every point along the way. If you click one of the results, Navigation will get you there, then get you right back on your trip. Or you could just find some fast food.

Pick a Different Route

Choosing Different Routes

"Route Info" is also misleadingly simple, as it's more about route control. You get a big, traffic-colored overview of your trip. Hit the gears-style icon to access the "Avoid Highways" and "Avoid Tolls" options. The third button with the arrows and marker? That lets you choose which route you'll take. Google doesn't always have a host of options, but you can sometimes augment Google's raw data with your own knowledge that, for example, you never want to drive past the elementary school shortly after 3 p.m. To change your route, you can tap one of the gray-and-colored routes on the map, or select from the columns up top listing the main roads taken for each.

Car Mode

Car Mode

Android's Maps and Navigation tools are pretty darned handy, but getting to them while you're driving requires pressing small icons or fiddling with controls you shouldn't be fiddling with in a moving object. That's what car mode, or "Car Home," is for. If you bought an accessory car dock for your phone, Car Home should launch automatically when you slot your phone into it. Otherwise, you pull up the "Car Home" app in your app tray.

The layout and button options are made for driving—big buttons, an emphasis on voice search. Rather than punching up a contact and dialing it, you should hit "Voice Search" and say "Call Tim Bronson at Home" to start a call to the number you assigned to. There are links to your music, a phone dialer, and a few other apps on a screen you can swipe over to. But the main feature of Car Home (starting in Android 2.2) is that it stays up. If you hit your Home or Back buttons, you end up back at Car Home, not the Home Screen. The way out is to hit the "Exit car mode" button, or pull down your Notification bar and select the little nub that informs you that Car Home is running.

Maps and Navigation are some of Google's most frequently updated apps, so always be on the lookout for new stuff when you're looking for directions or neat stuff nearby.

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