Google Maps 9.9 brings native Maps to Android Wear devices, translucent status bar, more

Google Maps was updated to version 9.9 today, and with this incremental update comes an actual Google Maps app on Android Wear devices (surprise, surprise?), a translucent status bar (finally!), and more…

Most striking in this update, as some may have noticed, is that Google has introduced a new Google Maps application for Android Wear devices. While Android Wear was previously able to give you step-by-step navigation, there’s now some proper support for actually browsing Maps. The feature is currently restricted to devices that are running Android 5.1.1 (which is just the Watch Urbane at the moment), but the new version of wear is rolling out to more watches now.

Notably, this is a feature that Google accidentally (or not) included in a screenshot of the Android 5.1.1 update back in April (as you can see above). We speculated that the feature would be coming in a future version of the Maps app (as Google introduced a similar update to the Google Keep app), and now that update has landed. Sadly, as far as we can tell, it’s not going to work until you’re running Android 5.1.1.

Also included in this update—as mentioned—is a Material Design translucent status bar in the Android app. And, as Android Police points out, you’ll now get notification cards that pop up from the bottom of the Android app to give you a summary of your drive.

You can grab Google Maps 9.9 on the Play Store as it rolls out, or you can head over to APKMirror on your Android device to install it right now.