The new button called “Ask Maps” will feature a chatbot that allows users to ask complex questions outside of the typical navigation topics, Miriam Daniel, a vice president at Google Maps, said in a blog post Thursday. <\/p>\n
Users can now ask questions like, “My phone is dying \u2014 where can I charge it without having to wait in a long line for coffee?” or “Is there a public tennis court with lights on that I can play at tonight?” <\/p>\n
The results are personalized based on prior searches and saved trips in Google Maps, “making it easy to turn plans into action,” the company said.<\/p>\n
“Google Maps is fundamentally changing what a map can do,” the company said in the blog post. “By bringing together the world’s freshest map with our most capable Gemini models, we’re transforming exploration into a simple conversation and making driving more intuitive than ever with our biggest navigation upgrade in over a decade.”<\/p>\n
Google is adding more AI to its maps service as part of a broader effort to differentiate Gemini from potential competition and to keep users on its products for longer.\u00a0With more than 2 billion monthly users<\/a>, Google Maps, which turned<\/a> 20 last year, is the world’s top<\/a> navigation app. <\/p>\n Ask Maps starts rolling out Thursday in the U.S. and India on Android and Apple’s<\/a> iOS, with desktop coming soon, the company said.<\/p>\n In a briefing with reporters ahead of the announcement, Google staffers said the company isn’t including ads in the feature but isn’t ruling out the possibility for the future. <\/p>\n “Right now, we are very focused on launching this for our users and providing a great experience,” said Andrew Duchi, a director of product management at Google.<\/p>\n Google Maps makes money primarily by\u00a0selling advertising and promoted placements to businesses. It also charges companies for access to its Maps APIs and location data.<\/p>\n Google doesn’t break out revenue from maps, which has historically been one of the search giant’s most under-monetized products, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak\u00a0told<\/a> CNBC. The unit has been trying to increase revenue, including by licensing<\/a> new sets of mapping data for companies to use as they build products around renewable energy.<\/p>\n WATCH: Agentic AI deployment and research constrained by memory chip shortage<\/a><\/p>\n
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