Google Maps is getting an AI trip-planning feature called Ask Maps

Google Maps is getting a new feature called Ask Maps, and it is a bigger change than another chatbot button stuffed into another app. It’s rolling out first on mobile across the US. Ask Maps lets people ask broader questions about places and trips instead of sticking to the usual search terms. 

Alongside that Google is launching Immersive Navigation, a new driving view with 3D effects, lane markers, and stop signs built into the map.

The easiest way to understand Ask Maps is that Google wants Maps to help before the route even begins. In a few examples that Google showed you can ask for things to do or places to visit with friends, check what people like about a place through Gemini summaries, and even ask follow-up questions about specific details like whether a spot has outdoor seating or feels quiet enough for a conversation.

The feature sits right under the search bar as a new tab, which makes it feel like a next version of the app.

Google also showed Ask Maps putting together a three-day drive from the Grand Canyon to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, complete with stops and small tips along the way. That is the real shift. Maps used to be the app you opened after the hard part was over, once the place had already been picked and someone just needed directions. Ask Maps is aimed at the messier part before that, when the plan is still up in the air.

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There is another layer to it, though. Ask Maps can reshape suggestions based on what Google already knows about a user, including something as simple as whether that person is vegetarian. That can make the feature more useful, but it also says a lot about where Google is taking Gemini. The company is not keeping AI off to the side anymore. It is pushing it into products people use every day and making it part of the default experience. 

But reports suggest users cannot hide Ask Maps or turn it off.

Immersive Navigation is the less flashy update, but it fits the same pattern. Google says it is meant to make unfamiliar roads easier to read with a richer route view and clearer guidance at the moments drivers usually hesitate. On its own, that sounds like a solid Maps upgrade. Next to Ask Maps, it looks like something more deliberate. Google is trying to make Maps useful for the whole outing, not just the drive.