Google is updating Maps with New Features

Google has brought several new features to the Maps app to facilitate easier communication between businesses and customers.Businesses will also get a verified profile on the Maps. Once verified, customers can directly interact with them on chat directly from the Google Maps app. The messages appear in a separate "Business Messages"in the update tab. The messaging feature can also be turned off if you don't want to receive any customers' messages.

Google will be adding more performance insights to the Maps console, which will let you track your business performance. It will allow you to track the total amount of searches that triggered your business profileor if your performance is up or down from last year. Google will also show a list of search terms people used to find your business profile and also how many times each search term triggered your business profile.

The third update in Google Maps is the introduction of a new community feed in the Explore tab of Google Maps.It will allow users to find the latest reviews, photos, and posts added to Maps by local experts, people you follow, and businesses serving food & drink.

In a very surprising move, Google is now allowing people to contribute to "Street View" using only their smartphone. Earlier, it was only done by Google's own dedicated equipment. To make this work, Google has a separate Street View app on the Play Store, which users can download and contribute to the Street View of their area.

Like Google's own Street View footage, all submitted images will censor identifiable information such as visible faces and license plates. For now, Street View recordings can only be submitted for previously uncaptured areas in Austin, New York, and Toronto, as well as Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Nigeria. This is a pilot project, and Google may open submissions for other countries soon.