- Google Maps has a brand new location-scanning characteristic for your screenshots
- It searches screenshots for locations, then provides them to a non-public record
- There might be privacy issues with this new characteristic
In case you incessantly end up screenshotting places after which wanting them up afterwards, there’s a brand new characteristic within the Google Maps iOS app that may assist save you time.
In a blog post, Google detailed the characteristic, which is obtainable now (though it had been revealed a few month in the past). The characteristic sees Google use its personal Gemini synthetic intelligence (AI) to scan your screenshots and add any places talked about within the photos to a brand new personal record in Google Maps.
Proper now, it seems that Google Maps scans your photos for textual content mentioning a spot identify, moderately than wanting up the situation knowledge itself that’s been saved to the photographs or utilizing picture recognition. That is a bit limiting for now, but it is absolutely step one in the direction of extra highly effective model.
You can discover the brand new personal record within the You tab within the Google Maps app. Supplied you might have the newest Google Maps replace, you’ll discover a personal record labeled Screenshots, alongside a tutorial on how to use the brand new characteristic.
The Screenshots folder will present an inventory of current photos that include location names. You can then faucet a Evaluate button to see the place that Google has detected within the picture. In case you’re completely happy it has the proper place, you can faucet Save; in any other case, faucet Don’t Save. The app will then present you the saved location on a map.
There’s additionally an auto-scan facet to this. In case you grant Google permission, the app will likely be ready to scan all of your screenshots so as to detect places. Otherwise you can add photos manually, when you desire.
Privacy issues
Given Google’s arguably shoddy report when it comes to person privacy, the thought of permitting the corporate to scan my library of screenshots and log my location data feels fairly uncomfortable to me.
Chances are high this location knowledge will likely be despatched to Google’s servers, the place there’s the potential for it to be processed, bought, and used to profile you – all issues that Google’s enterprise mannequin is constructed upon.
Past the privacy issues, I’m wondering how a lot utility a characteristic like this may add within the first place. On iOS, you can faucet and maintain on any textual content after which look it up on the internet, which applies to issues like addresses and place names. Which means it’s already fast and straightforward to discover data on locations you’ve screenshotted, with out Google Maps’ newest replace.
Nonetheless, simply because I’m not bought on it, that doesn’t imply that nobody else will discover Google’s newest thought helpful. In order for you to attempt it out for your self, ensure you obtain the newest Google Maps model on iOS – the characteristic will apparently come to one of the best Android telephones at a later date.