Google Maps is rolling out a new feature in its latest update that allows you to create Street View photos using just a phone. Android users with ARCore-compatible devices can now record imagery and post it to Google Street View in some locations.
Google is open to receiving submissions originally in Toronto, New York, Austin, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Costa Rica. More regions will support the latest feature in a moment, and Google will definitely make use of this user-generated content when it doesn’t have its own Street View imagery available.
“While our own Street View trekkers and cars have collected quite 170 billion images from 10 million miles around the planet, there are still many unmapped parts of the planet,” says Stafford Marquardt, the product manager of Google Maps Street View. “Where people contribute connected photos, they’re going to appear within the Street View layer on Google Maps as dotted blue lines.”
Google has been testing this feature for a while now and it will automatically rotate and position the series of connected photos that are captured in its Street View app for Android. While users are ready to submit Street View imagery within the past, it required a special 360-degree camera. This new feature just makes use of a typical phone camera.
It exposes the road View feature to several more areas, including remotes areas that even Google’s Street View trekkers and cars haven’t visited.
Google will also use this user-generated content to update Google Maps with information like new businesses or publicly posted open hours, and therefore the company will apply its standard Street View privacy features to fade out faces and license plates.
Image Credits: The Verge