Google Maps today announced three feature enhancements to its iOS app. Google Maps has announced three feature updates to its iOS app: live location sharing via the iMessage App, a traffic widget on the home screen, and dark mode. This makes it a stronger competitor to iOS native Apple Maps.You can already share your live location in Google Maps. Tap on the blue dot to show where you are. Select friends can also see your estimated time to reach your destination and how much battery life you have. The Google Maps iMessage widget makes sharing your location easier than ever. Google Maps will automatically share your location for an hour. However, you can extend the sharing time to up to three working days by tapping the stop button.Google Maps' existing iMessage widget lets users send GPS coordinates of their current location to iMessage. However, if you are trying to meet up friends, this wont be as helpful as sharing a live location. Apple Maps already offers a similar feature in iMessage so Google is following Apple's lead to create their own app. Google Maps was for a long time the preferred navigation app. But, in 2018, Apple rebuilt Maps completely from scratch, making it more competitive. Apple Maps, which will be available in iOS 15, will include AR functionality, improved public transit features, and other improvements.Google Maps has added Waze-like traffic reporting and incident report features in 2019 to its app. This made it more attractive for commuters. You can also set frequently visited destinations such as home, work, or the gas station and then navigate to them with just one tap. The app has dark mode already on Android. This feature will be available to iOS users over the next few weeks.Google Maps and Apple Maps are competing to be the best navigation app. Snapchat is a surprising competitor. Snapchat has created a more social experience with its Snap Map. Snapchat introduced the My Places feature last week to its Snap Map. This allows users to find new places to visit based upon the activity of others in their area. At the end of July, Snapchat announced that it had seen its revenue and daily active users grow at the fastest rates in four years. Google Maps still had more than 1 billion users worldwide as of last year.
