Google Maps can soon scan your screenshots to plan your vacation

Google is introducing new features to Maps, Search, and Hotels that aim to help users plan upcoming travel and vacations. The Google Maps app is getting a standout feature that can identify locations in your screenshots and save them to a list, making it easier for users to plan their trips before screenshots of travel ideas get lost within their camera roll.

Once the new screenshot list is enabled in Maps, the Gemini-powered feature will detect places that are mentioned in text within screenshots on the device, show users the locations on the map, and allow them to review and save locations to a sharable list. The screenshot list feature will start rolling out in English this week to iOS users in the US, with Android support “coming soon.”

AI Overviews for Google Search are also being updated to expand travel planning tools, with itinerary-building features rolling out in English to mobile and desktop devices in the US this week that can create trip ideas for “distinct regions or entire countries.” Users can use terms like “create a vacation itinerary for Greece that focuses on history” to explore reviews and photos from other users alongside a map of location recommendations, which can be saved to Google Maps or exported to Docs or Gmail.

Google says that AI Overviews in Google Lens, which provide information about whatever your camera is pointing at, will also soon be available in Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.

The price drop alerts that are already available for Google Flights are also launching globally for Google’s hotel search tool this week on both mobile and desktop browsers. A new toggle will allow Google Hotel users to track prices for chosen dates and destinations via email notifications, taking filters like area, star rating, and beach access into account.