[Update: Maps Incognito in Testing] Google Maps and Google Search will get incognito modes to hide your navigation and search data

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Update (9/18/19 @ 2:05 PM ET): Google is now testing the Incognito Mode in Google Maps for Android.

We’re at the point where our online activity is being tracked virtually all of the time. This can actually be helpful in some cases and we’ve seen that with all of the various apps and services that utilize our personal data. But there are times when we should be able to expect that we aren’t being tracked. Google has had this feature, called Incognito Mode, built into a number of their apps but today we learned that the Mountain View tech giant will be bringing this feature to both Google Search as well as Google Maps.

Now, desktop users of these services have had these features for a while. You could open up an Incognito Mode tab in Chrome and use Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, etc. without fear of having your usage data tied to your account. On Android though, very few people actually open up Chrome to use Google Maps or search the web with Google. Instead, they open up the Google Search or Google Maps application and leverage the benefits of the native application.

So using these services via the app on your smartphone locked you out of being able to use them in Incognito Mode. This is changing soon though as Google has announced this feature is coming to their maps now and search applications in the future. This is a feature that has been available in the YouTube application since last year. The expansion to both Google Maps as well as Google Search is a welcomed move forward. They’re even making this new feature more accessible by letting you enable it by tapping on your profile image.

Once you tap on your image it will reveal a number of different account and privacy-related options to choose from. On stage at Google I/O 2019 we got to see the Incognito Mode option was easily accessible right there along with a quick way to access your data from that particular application.

Update: Maps Incognito in Testing

Google Maps Incognito Mode is now in testing. This was announced by Google back at Google I/O 2019: https://t.co/7khtC4W6Cy pic.twitter.com/ShVUDxLbW9 — Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) September 18, 2019

Announced back at Google I/O 2019, Maps’ Incognito Mode is now in testing. Our Editor in Chief, Mishaal Rahman, obtained the GIF in the tweet above that shows how users can switch to Incognito Mode by tapping the profile icon in the search bar. Closed beta testers are getting the feature now.