Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google Maps is working on a new feature that will make it easier to share a list of search results with others.
- This new share feature creates a shareable list of the first ten search results from any query.
- This new functionality could simplify group planning, such as deciding on a restaurant, when it goes live.
Google Maps is a great resource for discovering services and local businesses around you. However, there’s plenty that Google can do to improve the discovery process, especially in collaborative settings. If you have ever tried to make some plans with your friends and looked up restaurants on Google Maps, you’ll know what I am talking about — finding options is easy, but sharing a couple of them to reach a consensus is rather cumbersome. Google seems intent on tackling this problem, as we’ve now spotted the ability to create easily shareable lists from Google Maps’ search results.
When users search for something in a specific area on Google Maps, they are greeted with a number of results. Users can scroll through the results and narrow down on a couple of listings, but sharing this list forward with others is a big pain. Most of the time, you will end up sharing either the search result as a whole, or these listings individually. Savvy users will create a list from these search results and share it forward, but it’s still a fairly cumbersome multi-step process.
Google Maps v25.34.00 includes code that allows sharing search results as a list with others. We managed to activate the feature ahead of release to give you an early look:
The example above shows that the search results for “restaurants” includes a share button. Tapping on this share button will create a list of the first ten restaurant listings from the searched area and present you with a link that can easily be shared with others. The share button is essentially creating a list for you; hence, you can name the list, give it a description, and an icon before sharing it.
If the search results exceed ten, the list will restrict itself to the first ten results. However, you can unselect any listing from these results before sharing the list, giving you a bit more control.
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Here’s a video demo of the feature in action:
While we use restaurants as an example, the feature will seemingly work with all search terms commonly used within Google Maps.
The ability to easily share search results isn’t currently live within Google Maps. We’ll keep you updated when we learn more.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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