Google Maps

Google Maps Timeline can now show what movie you watched at the theater

Ben Schoon | Apr 6 2020 - 8:57 am PT

Using your location data, Google Maps produces a Timeline that can show places you’ve visited. Now, Google is giving the Maps Timeline a new feature that allows it to show what movies you’ve seen in theaters.

First noted by Android Police and detailed officially on a Google support page, this new feature is already live! If you visit your Google Maps Timeline, you’ll be able to see movies you saw at the theater. This technically started in February.

Google doesn’t use the data in your email or services such as Fandango to find what movies you’ve seen, but rather it matches up the time you visited the theater and publicly available showtimes to guess what movies you might have seen.

This might be wrong sometimes, but it seems like a fairly good method of locating that data that doesn’t infringe on privacy more than Maps’ Timeline feature already kind of does. Personally, I haven’t had this feature work for me, but it seems to have rolled out for most at this point.

Starting February 2020, when visits to cinemas appear on your Timeline, Google can use public showtimes to suggest which movies you might have seen. These are visible only to you and can be edited or deleted anytime.

Of course, it seems unlikely anyone will be using this feature anytime soon. With the COVID-19 pandemic keeping everyone home, movie theaters were some of the first locations to close and, at this point, it seems like it will be months until they open their doors again.