Live events are a very useful feature of Apple's latest iPhone models, but it's underutilized. Google Maps hasn't supported this feature for years, and although it's not yet implemented, Google is testing Live Activity with some iPhone users.
On iOS Live Activity can offer app data that can be prioritized on the lock screen and always-on display, as well as on the iPhone's dynamic island. Live actions can be used in several use cases, one example being how Uber and Lyft use the feature to display pick-up and drop-off status.
Google is announcing support for Live actions in Maps starting in early 2023. It was last reported that Google was planning to bring this feature to the iPhone 15 on time, but it never happened.
When it was first announced, Google advertised that “visual directions”; will include information that was “previously only visible when you unlock your phone, open an app, and use Integrated Navigation mode.” This feature has been enabled and is already active on Android through regular system notifications. On iOS only, this feature has not yet been fully implemented, despite an in-app setting related to “View directions while navigating.”
However, Google has recently been testing support for interactivity with turning these visual directions on and off for some users.
Over the past two or three months, some lucky users have noticed Google Maps interactions appearing on their iPhone when they receive directions. This seems to work for both public transport and regular car navigation: Maps shows your destination and arrival time, as shown in the image below.
This feature, as expected, works on both the lock screen and Dynamic Island.
We found several reports on Reddit of Google testing this functionality, as well as another report today from Max Jambor on Twitter/X. This appears to be an extremely limited test, and at least one user who saw the test said it stopped working after a few hours.
It's unclear when Google plans to bring Live Activity support to Maps for iPhone, but the feature is certainly highly anticipated and long overdue.
If you want to try your luck at this, open the Settings menu in Google Maps and turn on the “Easy directions while navigating” option. This likely won't result in interactive activities suddenly appearing, but it will give you a better chance to try them out.
Have you seen interactive activities in action using Google Maps? Let us know in the comments.
More about Google Maps:
- How to disable Google Maps 3D buildings in Android Auto and CarPlay.
- Google continues to prepare satellite support on Pixel, including location sharing on Maps.
- Google Maps will offer alternatives for public transport and walking walks. to driving directions
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