Location sharing in Google Maps may soon become easier

Modern-day social media apps offer tools to share all kinds of information with your near and dear ones, including your immediate location. As a navigation app, Google Maps also has this feature built in. However, the chances of you knowing about it are slim.

In what could well be an admission that this feature has been hidden in plain sight, Google Maps is testing a simpler method to make this feature more accessible.

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By  Chethan Rao

In its current form, Maps lets you pinpoint your current location with a FAB (floating action button) denoted by a compass icon at the bottom right of the screen. You can then tap the blue dot on the map to open the "Your location" bottom card, which lets you share a specific location or even your real-time location.

Current vs upcoming

A report by Android Authority has revealed a prominent FAB for sharing your current location, just above the compass icon. As the screenshots above show, this FAB uses a combination of location and sharing icons, leaving no ambiguity about what it's supposed to do.

This change was spotted in version 26.12.03.884026066 of Google Maps and likely required some tinkering to enable. The idea here is to give users an easier way to share their current location, and this FAB should serve that purpose pretty well.

A redesigned navigation menu?

Current navigation menu (image 1); Under-development redesign of the menu (image 2); Relocated menu items in settings (image 3)

Additionally, Google Maps is also testing some changes to the navigation experience. The bottom sheet during navigation featuring options such as Add a report, Settings, and others may soon be displayed in the form of large buttons rather than the existing list/grid-based view.

This under-development version only shows five large buttons on the bottom sheet, with the Show traffic map and Show satellite map toggles moving to the settings page, according to Android Authority. The bottom sheet definitely looks cleaner with this redesign while also making the options easier to access during navigation.

Notably, the Share trip progress option appears to be hidden from this particular redesign, which suggests that this is a work-in-progress and not quite close to completion.

Much like the location sharing FAB we touched on above, it's too soon to tell if these upgrades to the navigation menu will be implemented widely by Google Maps. But as a frequent Maps user, I'd be a little hesitant toward wholesale design changes, especially to the navigation experience.

What do you make of these potential changes to Google Maps?