Google Maps Updated With New Features For Travelers

Google Maps is one of the best apps any person can have, particularly those who love to travel. It helps people plan their trips, know interesting places in the area they will visit, and find their way if ever they get lost. It's a very helpful app.

Maps will now be more helpful for those who love to travel to foreign countries. Google has announced that starting this month, Maps will work with the Google Translator to help users talk to locals using the local language.

In a blog, Google said it is adding a new translator feature to Maps. This will enable the user's phone to speak out the name and address of a place in the local language. Users won't have to struggle with how to pronounce the names of places of interest in Japan, for example, because the app itself will tell the user how it's said.

The feature, which will come sometime this month, is easy to use. All users need to do is tap on a place of interest, wait for the name and address of that place to appear on the screen, then tap on the new speaker button that sits next to the place's name and address. Google Maps will announce these details out loud for the user to hear.

Sometimes, however, knowing how to pronounce the name and address of a place isn't enough. Users have to know how to pronounce basic conversational words so they can get around easily. Google understood that and decided to add a link to the Google Translator app in Google Maps.

This is how the link works: Once users tap on the speaker button next to the place's name and address, a window allowing users to listen to these details will pop up. Beneath the name and address is an option that says “Get more translations.”

Tapping on this will launch the Google Translator app. Once the app is up and running, users can simply type words they need help translating.

Google said the technology automatically determines the language a user's phone is using, and responds accordingly. If the phone's language is set to English but the Maps app is used to search a place in a non-English speaking country such as Japan, for example, Maps will automatically display the speaker icon next to a place's name and address.

The feature will support 50 languages when it launches for Android and iOS later this month. This update comes after Google decided to add small location pins informing users of the many places of interest in any given location.