Welcome a fresh update of Google Maps to the world. Version 9.78 began rolling out to the beta channel last night, and with it come a few visual tweaks and a cool new feature for custom lists that shows the places you've visited. Turning to the teardown, it looks like Google will be giving contributors a little more visibility and control over their public profiles. Drivers in São Paulo, Brazil will also be getting a useful tool for navigating through or around the rodízio.

What's New

Unofficial Changelog: (the stuff we found) Visited places shown in custom lists

Keeping track of visited places in lists

Left: v9.77. Center+Right: v9.78.

You'll now see some new information floating amidst custom lists. There's now a progress bar in the header that shows how many of the destinations on that list have been visited. Continue further down the list and there are little markers showing when you last visited each of those places.

This seems like a nice touch if you've got something of a bucket list to visit during a vacation or just after moving to a new area. It might also be useful for short-term lists, like a property manager that has to visit multiple addresses during their day.

If it turns out that you haven't actually been to the location, a new overflow menu has been added over top of the photos that includes an "I haven't been here" option to quickly fix the error. Likewise, there's an "I've been here" option on places that haven't been marked. From here, you can also remove a place from the list, which is much faster and more intuitive than opening the editing screen, or open the box to add a comment.

The overflow menu has also been added to the default lists (e.g. Favorites), but it only contains the option to remove a place from the list.

Visual tweaks to settings

Settings on v9.77 and v9.78, then contribution notifications on v9.77 and v9.78.

This update makes a few visual tweaks to the settings screens that may stand out to the pixel peepers out there. Divider lines have mostly been removed, though they are still around in many other screens throughout the app. There is also a big indent next to each item, which looks like the perfect amount of space for an icon, but none have been added.

A note on Material Theme changes

Also on the topic of visual changes, we've been seeing a steady trickle of changes over the last few months that include new variations on the Material Design style. Now dubbed Material Theme as of Google I/O 2018, we've got a name for the new look. More of those changes are creeping into Maps lately, including lots of rounded and filled buttons, cards with rounded corners, and various other twists on the older style.

Unfortunately, most of these changes are being rolled out very slowly, and many are turned on remotely rather than coming with app updates. I still haven't seen most of them on my phones, and it seems they're still fairly rare among other users, so don't feel bad if you're not seeing the new look yet. Many of us are in the same club.

– Thanks, Alin Ali Hassan, Alvar Lagerlof, and Fabio Santo.

Teardown

Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (Android's application package) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. It's possible that the guesses made here are wrong or inaccurate. Even when predictions are correct, there is always a chance that products could change or may be canceled. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced and released. Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (Android's application package) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. It's possible that the guesses made here are wrong or inaccurate. Even when predictions are correct, there is always a chance that products could change or may be canceled. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced and released. The features discussed below are probably not live yet, or may only be live for a small percentage of users. Unless stated otherwise, don't expect to see these features if you install the apk. All screenshots and images are real unless otherwise stated, and images are only altered to remove personal information.

Public profile settings

The Local Guides program has been pretty successful at bringing together people from all around the world to get new information into the system and make Google Maps better. While many people are proud of their contributions, there are some that would like to keep their work a little less visible to prying eyes. It looks like Google Maps will be giving users a little more privacy control with an option to see what their public profiles look like to other people, and optionally hide their contributions on the profile itself.

Quote Profile settings</string> <string name="CONTRIBUTIONS_VIEW_PUBLIC_PROFILE_MENU_ITEM_TITLE">View your public profile</string>

<string name="PUBLIC_PROFILE_BANNER_PRIMARY">This is what your profile page looks like to others</string>

<string name="PUBLIC_PROFILE_BANNER_EXIT">Exit public profile view</string> <string name="PUBLIC_PROFILE_SETTING_PRIMARY">Show contributions on your profile</string>

<string name="PUBLIC_PROFILE_SETTING_SUBSTRING">List all your reviews, photos, and other public posts on your public profile</string> <string name="CONTRIBUTIONS_PROFILE_SETTING_MENU_ITEM_TITLE">Profile settings</string>

Access to your profile settings will be available through the overflow menu on the contributions screen, but it doesn't appear to be live yet. The only thing you'll be able to control is whether your profile includes all of your reviews, photos, and other public posts. Disabling that setting will not hide those things from the places where they were submitted, it only prevents people from finding them by looking at the profile.

Avoiding Rodízio in São Paulo, Brazil

Back in March, Google Maps added a helpful feature for residents in Jakarta, Indonesia. In short, Jakarta has selected some busy areas within the city and banned vehicles from entering on alternating days based on the license plate number. In the new feature, drivers can enter their license plate and Maps can incorporate the official schedule as it calculates routes for navigation.

It looks like this tool will be expanding to São Paulo, Brazil. Lots of new text mentions avoiding "rodízio area" (not to be confused with Rodízio, the all-you-can-eat style restaurants), referring to Municipal Rodízio located at the heart of São Paulo.

Quote Avoid rodízio area</string> <string name="DIRECTIONS_OPTIONS_AVOID_RODIZIO_AREAS_OPTION_INFO">Avoid the rodízio area by saving your plate day. </string> <string name="RODIZIO_LICENSE_PLATE_SETTINGS_DIALOG_TITLE">Save your rodízio day</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_LICENSE_PLATE_SETTINGS_SUMMARY_CHANGE_LINK">Change</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_LICENSE_PLATE_SETTINGS_SUMMARY_PLATE_SET">Your plate day is %1$d & %2$d</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_LICENSE_PLATE_SETTINGS_SUMMARY_PROMPT">Save your license plate day</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_LICENSE_PLATE_SETTINGS_TITLE">Avoid rodízio fines</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_LICENSE_RESTRICTION_PROMO_BODY">Save your license plate day to get routes that avoid the rodízio area</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_LICENSE_RESTRICTION_PROMO_PLATE_SAVED">%1$s %2$d & %3$d saved. You can change it in Settings.</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_LICENSE_RESTRICTION_PROMO_TITLE">Avoid rodízio fines in São Paulo</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_PLATE_DAY">Select plate day</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_PLATE_DESELECT_PLATE_CONTENT_DESCRIPTION">Clear plate selection</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_PLATE_RESTRICTION_ONE_DIRECTION_BANNER_TEXT">Tap to avoid rodízio area</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_PLATE_TYPE">%1$s %2$d & %3$d</string>

<string name="RODIZIO_TRAVEL_RESTRICTION_CALLOUT_TEXT">Rodízio %1$d & %2$d</string> <string name="DIRECTIONS_AVOIDING_RODIZIO_AREAS">Avoiding rodízio %1$d & %2$d</string>

<string name="DIRECTIONS_AVOIDING_RODIZIO_AREAS_FERRIES">Avoiding rodízio %1$d & %2$d, ferries</string>

<string name="DIRECTIONS_AVOIDING_RODIZIO_AREAS_HIGHWAYS">Avoiding rodízio %1$d & %2$d, highways</string>

<string name="DIRECTIONS_AVOIDING_RODIZIO_AREAS_HIGHWAYS_FERRIES">Avoiding rodízio %1$d & %2$d, highways, ferries</string>

<string name="DIRECTIONS_AVOIDING_RODIZIO_AREAS_HIGHWAYS_TOLLS">Avoiding rodízio %1$d & %2$d, highways, tolls</string>

<string name="DIRECTIONS_AVOIDING_RODIZIO_AREAS_HIGHWAYS_TOLLS_FERRIES">Avoiding rodízio %1$d & %2$d, highways, tolls, ferries</string>

<string name="DIRECTIONS_AVOIDING_RODIZIO_AREAS_TOLLS">Avoiding rodízio %1$d & %2$d, tolls</string>

<string name="DIRECTIONS_AVOIDING_RODIZIO_AREAS_TOLLS_FERRIES">Avoiding rodízio %1$d & %2$d, tolls, ferries</string> <string name="ROUTE_GOES_THROUGH_RODIZIO_AREA">This route goes through the rodízio area. Today is rodízio %1$d & %2$d.</string> <string name="ROUTES_ALL_GO_THROUGH_RODIZIO_AREA">The only available routes go through the rodízio area. Today is rodízio %1$d & %2$d.</string> excerpt from /xml/settings_navigation_prefs.xml

<com.google.android.apps.gmm.settings.navigation.RodizioLicensePlatePreference android:persistent="true" android:title="@string/RODIZIO_LICENSE_PLATE_SETTINGS_TITLE" android:key="rodizio_license_plate_settings" android:dialogTitle="@string/RODIZIO_LICENSE_PLATE_SETTINGS_DIALOG_TITLE"/>

I'm not sure if this has gone live for users in Brazil, but please let us know if you're in the area.

Paragliding

Oh, one last thing... They totally added an icon for paragliding.

I'm just gonna start looking for it right now... In person! Who wants to go with me?

Download

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