Google Maps in Android 16 is getting an amazing Live Updates feature

For many people, Google Maps is absolutely indispensable, and Google is about to make the navigation tool even more useful in Android 16. Taking advantage of a new feature introduced in the latest version of its mobile operating system, Google Maps is gaining useful Live Updates support.

Live Updates are a new type of notification that are used in very specific circumstances – such as flight tracking, delivery tracking, or navigation. Google is experimenting with Google Maps integration and, if it is done correctly, it could be a game-changer.

Important differences with Live Updates include that they appear above all other notifications, so they are always visible at the top of everything else. More than this, they can appear on the lock screen, and on Always-on-Display, so they are visible at all times.

They are essentially progress bar-style notifications that provide at-a-glance updates about how a journey or tasks is going. It is something that Google has been talking about for some time, causing much excitement and interest in doing so.

But when Google released Android 16 QPR Beta 1 earlier this year and Live Updates were notably absent, there was disappointment. Google had not forgotten, however, as Android QPR Beta 2 and Beta 2.1 show.

You can see how the Live Updates of Google Maps look in the screenshots above, as shared by Android Authority. Never more than a flick away – and sometimes less than that – this is a way to ensure that details of your navigation instructions do not get lost at a critical moment. Everything you need to know about where you need to turn next is never far away, so taking the wrong turn, or ending up in a dead end should be things of the past.

The timeline for the roll out of this super useful feature is a little hard to predict. We do know that the user base will be small to start with thanks to the fact that it is tied to Android 16. While the release of Android 16 QPR 1 is just around the corner – no exact date is known, but expect it to drop within a couple of weeks – but this will take a while to hit devices in any significant numbers.

Even then, it is not yet known whether Google Maps will be updated immediately or if it will remain an experimental feature for beta testers for a bit longer. 

Image credit: Android Authority