- A new location-sharing upgrade for Google Messages has been spotted
- You'll be able to add different map layers, including live traffic
- It's not clear how long it will be before the feature is enabled for everyone
While Google has added plenty of new features and refinements to its Google Messages app in recent months and years, it still lags behind competitors such as WhatsApp when it comes to certain facets of the app — like sharing your location with other people.
This is something that's essential for social meet-ups, keeping tabs on the kids, planning journey times, and more besides, and hidden code spotted by Android Authority suggests that location sharing in Google Messages is about to get a significant upgrade.
This is code that's present but not yet enabled in the latest beta version of Google Messages for Android, but the Android Authority team was able to get it working. It adds several map types and a map details option, when you choose to share your location.
Currently, you can only show a map in the default Google Maps style when location sharing in Google Messages, but the new options would let you switch to satellite or terrain views instead, as well as overlaying live traffic information on top.
Benefits to users
The satellite view would make it easier to find someone in relation to a landmark or a feature or the landscape, for example, while the terrain view would give you a better idea of how simple (or otherwise) it might be to reach someone in a remote area.
Then there's the traffic view — say if the roads were blocked up around a person you're trying to pick up in a car, you could get them to walk and come and meet you, rather than getting stuck in a traffic jam unnecessarily.
Most of the time I do tend to default to WhatsApp when it comes to letting people know where I am, because everyone's got the app and it's straightforward to use. You can also set time limits on location sharing, something which Google Messages doesn't have.
If improvements like this continue, I might switch to Google Messages for locations instead — at least for those people on Android. There's still work to do, but the feature only arrived earlier this year, so it's encouraging to see upgrades on the way already.