Google Travel launched in May to consolidate Google Flights, Hotel Search, and Trips. The latter standalone app was killed in August, but functionality lives on in Search, Maps, and now a Google Travel PWA.
There is a “Return to your trips anytime” card on google.com/travel that features an “Add shortcut” button to open Chrome’s “Add to Home screen” prompt. Appearing in your app launcher, “Travel” has a suitcase icon in company colors.
Launching the Progressive Web App briefly displays a “Trips all in one place” tagline before opening the mobile site fullscreen without any browser UI. That is the extent of the Google Travel PWA with no caching capability.
Google Trips for Android and iOS previously allowed users to downloads maps and view itineraries without a connection. The company’s recommended solution for offline functionality is now Google Maps. Regardless, the homescreen icon is faster than Maps > Your places > Reservations tab, or entering “My Trips” in Search.
It can also be saved as a dock or desktop icon in Chrome for Mac, Windows, and Linux. A larger screen is particularly useful when browsing “Explore” and “Packages.”
Introduced sometime last month, there’s some integration with the Google app. One user today with an upcoming trip received the below notification with matching status bar icon. Tapping immediately opened Google Travel.
Hopefully, Google makes the Travel PWA more powerful in the future. While the company just wants users to make do with Maps — and not duplicate capabilities, there’s a case for a more powerful dedicated experience without the clutter of navigation and other suggestions. For example, Google in October killed standalone Area 120 project Touring Bird with the promise to integrate into other Travel efforts.
Thanks Dee!
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