Screenshot : Brendan Hesse ( Google Maps Android App )

The days of relying on Facebook for advertising your events may soon be over, as Google has starting rolling out a new feature that lets users add their own public events to Google Maps. You’ll be able to broadcast big neighborhood events, restaurant openings, art gallery debuts, or other important gatherings without having to spam invites or social media posts.




Public events have been in Google Maps for a while, letting you browse nearby happenings from a long list of categories like concerts, nightlife, classes, outdoors, and more. Like these, user-created public events will be viewable on the map and searchable to all Maps users through the “Events” tab.

As Android Police points out, the event-creation feature seems to only be rolling out on Android for now, with no official word of when to expect support on other platforms. If your Google Maps app doesn’t let you add your own publiic events, try checking for any available updates on Google Play. It’s also possible the feature hasn’t yet rolled out to your location or specific device yet.


How to create and edit a public event in Google Maps

Open Google Maps on your Android device Tap on the hamburger icon and tap on “Your Contributions,” and then Events > Add a public event. Add the information for the event, including an optional header image. Events without a header image will default to show the on-map location instead. According to anecdotal reports via 9to5Google Once you’ve made your event, you can edit it by going back to the Events tab, selecting the event you created, tapping “Edit this event Edit,” and changing the event’s details. You can also tap “Delete this event” to remove a public event you previously created.

How to share public events and invite friends

To invite your friends to an event, open the event’s Maps page and tap the share icon. Select an app to share the event—such as SMS, messaging services, Gmail, etc.—then select your contacts and send the invite. Your contacts will be able to add the event to their Google Calendar by tapping “Add to calendar,” and they will receive automatic reminder notifications near the event.