A host of new features were discovered in a recent teardown of version 9.60 of Google Maps — including picture-in-picture for navigation, the ability for local guides to publish videos, food reviews, and more. Picture-in-picture (PiP) functionality is currently only been available after first entering a key code, but it looks like the full public rollout is coming soon.
Over on the Pixel User Community within Google’s Product Forums (via Android Police), Community Manager Orrin shared a post to address the fact that Google is aware of the fact that many users still aren’t able to access PiP when using Maps and that this will be changing soon.
In his post, Orrin said:
Maps PiP functionality is rolling out over the next couple of weeks, and everyone should be able to access it soon by hitting the home button during navigation.
Furthermore, Orrin also stated that Google is “looking into the other issues reported here as well.”
Although this isn’t the most precise release window we’ve ever had, having at least some amount of reassurance is greatly appreciated.
Picture-in-picture is available in a variety of different apps on Android Oreo, and with Google Maps, pressing the home button while in navigation mode will shrink your route down to a small square atop your home screen so you can perform other tasks on your phone while still keeping an eye on where you’re going. You obviously shouldn’t take advantage of this while behind the wheel, but if your passenger needs to check something on their phone while guiding you where to go, it could certainly come in handy.
I personally don’t think I’ll have much use for PiP with Google Maps, but who knows. Maybe that’ll change in a couple weeks’ time.
More Android 8.0 Oreo News:
- Google posts Android 8.0 Oreo OTA update links for Pixel and Nexus devices
- Verizon’s Oreo update for Pixel, Pixel XL detail non-existent Instant Apps integration in Pixel Launcher
- Verizon is starting to update its Google Pixel and Pixel XL to Android 8.0 Oreo
- Android 8.0 Oreo brings deeper integration with Google Assistant to third-party apps
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