Today, Google Maps is introducing a new feature to everybody who is using the app on iOS and Android. The Lists addition allows you to create lists of various places. You can star them or save and share them with your friends. In the feature you can find three types of lists: Favorites, Starred Places, Want to Go. They are all built-in at launch and the Want to Go option is intended to be a personal bucket list. Besides these ones, you can also create your own custom list which you select to be public, private or shareable via link.
The company has been testing the feature ever since last fall, together with the power users they have, the Local Guides, and its developing process has been going on for more than 5 years now. The main thing here is the fact that with the entire process of creating and sharing lists makes the app more social. Zach Maier, the lead product manager at Maps, declared that this is one of their aims, to make the app move towards the social side of the Internet.
He also said that if before this, Maps was all about helping people arrive to a certain destination, but now the team wants to bring something new to their users. If you want to use the lists option, you have to hit the “Save” button on the detail page of the location. You can even drop a pin on the map itself, which is useful if you want to choose a specific destination that’s not normally easy to discover in the app.
There might be something common between the Starred places and Favorites section, but the aim of the Stars is to let you save a personal list of whatever places you want to come back later, but not necessarily their favorites.
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