Fueled by Google’s Gemini AI technology, the world’s most popular navigation app is set to become a more conversational companion as part of a redesign announced Wednesday.
The hands-free experience aims to transform Google Maps into something akin to an insightful passenger. It can direct drivers to destinations while also providing nearby recommendations for places to eat, shop, or sightsee, whenever asked for advice.
“No fumbling required — now you can just ask,” Google promised in a blog post detailing the app makeover.
One notable AI feature will make Google Maps more precise by calling out landmarks to indicate where to make turns, instead of relying solely on distance notifications.
While AI chatbots like Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT have sometimes struggled with “hallucinations” — periods of fabricating information — Google assures users that built-in safeguards will prevent Maps from accidentally sending drivers down the wrong road.
The information powering Gemini comes from roughly 250 million places stored in Google Maps’ extensive database, accumulated from user reviews over the past 20 years.
Google Maps’ new AI capabilities will be available on both Apple iPhone and Android devices. This rollout positions Gemini to impress (or potentially disappoint) a massive audience, considering that more than 2 billion people use the navigation app worldwide.
Beyond making Google Maps even more indispensable, the company hopes these AI features will serve as a showcase, giving Gemini a competitive edge against ChatGPT.
Prompted by OpenAI’s ChatGPT release in late 2022, Google has been steadily launching technologies to ensure its products evolve alongside the AI revolution.
This evolution includes a major overhaul of Google’s search engine, which has shifted away from simply listing relevant web links to increasingly highlighting AI-generated overviews and conversational responses through an AI mode.
https://fortune.com/2025/11/06/google-maps-gemini-conversational-companion-ai/