Google Maps can identify and save places in your screenshots – here's how

I often hop online to research places I want to visit when my wife and I travel to other cities or countries. If I find a web page on a museum, restaurant, landmark, or other spot that interests me, I might take a screenshot of the page to save for future reference. Now, I can do more with those static screenshots than just store them in my photo library, thanks to a new feature from Google.

A cool skill that scans screenshots of specific locations is now available in Google Maps for both iOS and Android. After identifying the name and other details of the location, the app lets you add it as an entry. From there, you can get directions to it, set it up as a favorite, or share it with another person.

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“If you ever have trouble keeping track of all of the screenshots you take of travel blogs, news articles, or social media posts when you’re researching places to go for an upcoming trip, you’ll want to try out this new Google Maps feature,” Google said in a blog post on Wednesday. “It uses Gemini capabilities to find names of places in your screenshots and helps save them to a list for you, making travel planning a breeze.”

How does this work?

1. Take a few screenshots of web pages with different destinations on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. You may want to run a search for places to visit and include the name of a city or region.
2. Update the Google Maps app to make sure you’re running the latest version.
3. Open the app and tap the You icon at the bottom of the screen. You should then see a new list called Screenshots at the top. Tap that list.
4. The first time you do this, a brief tutorial runs, which you can close. You’ll also be prompted to allow Maps to access your photos, which you must do for all this to work.
5. Tap the Scan screenshots button, and Maps will analyze your screenshots to pick out the names of any locations. Select the spots you want to include and tap Add.
6. After the final scan finishes, you can review each screenshot and pick the places you want to add to the app.
7. Each place you add then appears in the list. Tap a specific place to view more details about it, see photos, request directions, and save it to your Favorites list or any custom list you’ve set up.

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If you’re like me, you may take a lot of photos, videos, and screenshots. With this new feature, you can make sure your favorite spots are already in Google Maps so you don’t have to hunt them down throughout your photo library.

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