Google has efficient search tools integrated into most of its apps, and last year’sMultisearch for Lensis a prime example of the company’s general direction. Multisearch allows using multiple mixed media prompts in Lens, such as a combination of an image and text to reduce subsequent Googling and hopping between apps from the same company. Now, Maps for Android is bringing us a change along similar lines — displaying local weather conditions.
To be clear, Google Maps on iOS has enjoyed this feature for a while now, and integration on Android has been imminent. We saw the featurefirst show upin October, but it seems to be rolling out widely now, with version 11.113 (via9to5Google). To save you the trouble of looking up weather info for a place you plan to visit, Google Maps now shows you the weather info for the area on screen in a small window just under the search bar.
The weather data will remain visible as long as you’re panning around the map, disappearing when you select anything on the map or drop a pin. The tiny box features an icon for the current weather, the current temperature, and the air quality index in the area. Eagle-eyed users may notice the icon set used here differs from the Google Weather app, but tapping on the box works just as you would expect it to.
The box shows you additional weather information for the selected area, including the hourly temperature and weather forecast for the day, the textual description of current conditions, the “feels like” temperature, and the expected high and low temperatures for the day. The AQI index shows up in a separate section just below the hourly forecast, and tapping it opens the AQI overlay layer in Maps, which resembles a heatmap. Google helpfully shows you the local AQI scale and a description of the current index in a card at the bottom.
With this weather information now visible directly in Maps, you can easily avoid planning trips to places with inclement weather. In any case, it can help you pack for shorter outstation trips suitably, without relying on an acquaintance’s description of the conditions there, or spending more time in Search.
The integration is already rolling out on Android, but we aren’t seeing it on all our devices yet, indicating this is a phased rollout. You could try checking for updates to Maps on the Play Store, setting up automatic updates, or just force-close the app and restarting if you’re already running the latest version. If these methods don’t work, you may need to wait for a server-side switch from Google.
