Google Maps’ Best Feature Is About to Become a Lot Less Useful
Earlier this year, Google announced a big change to the timeline feature in Google Maps, which turned out to be one of its best features. While it can currently be accessed via Google Maps on the web as well as mobile apps, it will soon be locked to select phones and tablets (and, unless you transfer it , all your existing data will be deleted).
The transition deadline seems to vary between users. Google told TechRadar that people will have “approximately six months” from the first notice of the change to migrate their data, but 9to5Google reports that many Timeline users are seeing a new deadline of June 9, 2025. If this affects you, the best option is to simply open Google Maps on your phone and see what it says.
While I’m glad the timeline feature is here to stay in some form, and I understand the privacy and security benefits of keeping this data on devices rather than in Google’s cloud, I’m sad to see the web interface go away.
Travel with Google Timeline
If you’re new to Timeline, here’s how it works: The feature automatically logs everything wherever you go, using location information from devices linked to your Google account. Previously, you could later access this travel history online using your Google account. I understand why this concerns people’s privacy – maybe that’s why Google is going to block this data locally for certain devices – but I’m willing to trust Google to reliably hide my comings and goings from anyone else because it’s useful and interesting I find this function.
I often use it to retrace the steps of past holidays, remembering the places we stayed and the sights we saw. I also use it to find bars, restaurants and cafes that I’ve liked in the past. Sometimes I accidentally dive into history to see what I was doing on this day last year or on this day five years ago. Everything is planned: not only places, but also travel by plane, train or car (or on foot).
In a way, it works like a journal that I don’t have to update: entries are made several times a day. I can remember the last time I saw friends in certain places or the last time I visited certain countries. What’s more, Timeline tracks cities I’ve seen and miles traveled, almost like fitness stats but for travel.
Timeline will still offer this feature on phones and tablets, but it won’t sync across multiple devices. I won’t be able to load my maps and my travels onto the big screen – when it comes to viewing the map, searching for individual places, editing information and scrolling through dates, it’s all much easier with a trackpad and keyboard.
The web interface is also currently the only way to see an overview of the entire month or the entire year: the Google Maps app only displays data for one specific day. I will no longer be able to see the red dots of the three-week road trip my brother and I took across the United States, or see how the 2018 trip compared to the 2019 trip, or see how much ground I covered. covered in January. The timeline will be less fun and less interesting.
Go mobile with Timeline
While I’m disappointed that the Timeline web interface will go away (as I’m sure are many people who use it to view past trips, plan future trips, calculate travel expenses, and whatnot), it’s comforting to know that Timeline will continue work. mobile, almost the same as now.
The app version even has some nice bonuses that aren’t available online—or at least not in such a convenient form. You can see all the places you’ve stayed while your timeline is active, sorted by category and location. So you can view all the hotels you’ve stayed at, or all the attractions you’ve seen, or get a list of all the places you’ve seen in one specific city.
Then you have the Statistics tab, which gives you a breakdown of your travel activities: for example, how much walking, driving, and flying you did, and how much total time you spent away from home and the office. . This is broken down by month and also gives you a little overview of the highlights.
The Day tab doesn’t give the full map overview you can find online, but at least it’s something: download it and you can see the places you visited, how you got there, and additional information , for example, the amount of time. you spent walking and driving. Just like online, you can add places that were missed and delete or edit entries.
If you’ve never tried Timeline or are getting messages asking if you want to continue using it on your phone, I’d recommend giving it a try—it’s my favorite Google Maps feature. As with other types of data in your Google account, you can delete your Timeline history at any time or have it automatically erased after a certain amount of time (for example, if it’s more than three months old).