Google started to focus on Augmented Reality in many apps be it Lens or Google Maps. Augmented Reality based walking directions were released for iOS and Android in past years with many improvements on the way. One of the recent improvements Google Maps implemented is the use of Live View to calibrate the current location of the device.
Google tested out the problems arising in the urban environments that lead to GPS falls short in some dense region due to high interference by the buildings. Well, one may need to guess or use Street View data to confirm their location.
Even with Live View, several other factors may lead to problems as one needs to point the device camera at buildings, surroundings, or any street signs to help Google Maps recognize the direction the person is facing. Sometimes in order to get exact location, the person may also need to calibrate the Google Maps by physically moving the phone in Figure 8 and it is also awkward to do in public and sometimes it doesn’t work properly.
Google is now encouraging you to “Calibrate with Live View” to boost the precision of the blue dot on Google Maps. Most of them are familiar with the dot that marks the current location that has a beam to indicate the direction which you are pointing. Narrower beams are much more accurate than larger beams.
Clicking the blue circle will open a full-screen menu with the new option at the bottom under “Save your parking” This will launch the same camera UI that Live View uses and should take only a few seconds to complete.
After that, the position should be very precise and the beam will be replaced by a solid arrow.
Calibrate with Live View is available on a range of AR Core-compatible Android devices that are tested for running the new stable and some beta versions of Google Maps. Unfortunately, it’s not available for iOS users.
