Google Maps for Android has been updated to version 5.5, including a handful of new features. Place pages now provide the option to check in on Latitude and leave a rating out of five stars. Recently Google’s location history service tied in with Latitude could start tracking how much time we spend at work, home, and abroad, but now from the mobile app, you can set a new place as work or home. Transit directions have had a bit of an overhaul, now showing which lines service any given subway station. Stops also show the next upcoming departures.
Google Maps for mobile offers a lot of great location-based functions, including free turn-by-turn directions, social (but secure) location-sharing through Latitude, finding categorized points of interest, zooming down to Street View to see what spots on a road look like, biking directions… the list goes on. It’s a great app, and if you don’t use it, you probably should.
Recently, Google made Maps usable in Android and iPhone browsers, which got me nervous that they were shifting away from real apps and into “web apps”, but it’s good to see they’re not switching completely. To download the latest version, hit up the Android Market.
[via Google Mobile Blog]
