Gemini in Google Maps now lets you plan a vacation from screenshots

By Tushar Mehta Published March 27, 2025

Google Maps on the Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra. — Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

How often do you take screenshots of exciting destinations from travel blogs and TikTok videos but forget about them entirely when you’re planning your next vacation? Don’t fuss if the answer is “plenty.” The increasing information overload leaves little room for memories of a fascinating spot in another random part of the world. Thankfully, the new Gemini AI features in Google Maps can do just that, so your interesting saves don’t go buried under the myriad screenshots on your phone.

After recently receiving Gemini’s superpowers to assist you in discovering places, Google Maps is gaining the ability to look through your screenshots to help you plan travels. The Maps app is getting a new “screenshot list” feature that will identify text from your screenshots and open up details on Google Maps. Google’s blog post also says you can save useful places in a list, which can be shared with others who might be traveling with you.

Google Maps vacation planning using screenshots with Gemini. — Google

Currently, Google Maps’ screenshot list can only read text from your screenshots. While image recognition would be ideal to help us locate some unidentifiable spots from images, that ability is not available just yet. One reason for that may be to allow all the processing to happen on-device instead of uploading your media to Google’s cloud centers.

Recommended Videos

Moreover, the screenshot list functionality is not turned on by default and must be toggled manually — which, I feel, is a good way for people to safeguard their privacy.

At the moment, the feature is starting to roll out only to iOS and will arrive on Android soon.

Taking stress out of travel planning

In addition to helping you jot down a list of places to add to your itinerary, AI overviews in Google Search will also help you create travel plans for specific destinations and based on the duration of your stay.

In addition, Google is expanding the popular price drop alerts it already offers for flights to hotels. If you search for hotel prices using Google, you will be able to set a price drop alert for specific dates and location. In case of a reduction in hotel room prices, Google will send you a notification via email.

Topics

Mobile Writer

Tushar is a freelance writer at Digital Trends and has been contributing to the Mobile Section for the past three years…

Emerging Tech

I tested the world-understanding avatar of Gemini Live. It was shocking

Scanning a sticker using Gemini Live with camera and screen sharing.

It’s somewhat unnerving to hear an AI talking in an eerily friendly tone and telling me to clean up the clutter on my workstation. I am somewhat proud of it, but I guess it’s time to stack the haphazardly scattered gadgets and tidy up the wire mess.

My sister would agree, too. But jumping into action after an AI “sees” my table, recognizes the mess, and doles out homemaker advice is the bigger picture. Google’s Gemini AI chatbot can now do that. And a lot more.

Mobile

You’ll soon be able to see more text in Google Messages

The Google Messages app on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

If you've been lamenting the relatively limited size of the Google Messages text box, good news: it can now get bigger than just four lines. Last month, Google Messages redesigned its compose field — the area where you write your message — but a lot of fans took issue with the fact it could only display four lines of text at once. This was a particular pain point if you had to share a long URL that took up the majority of the field.

Now, though, things are changing. In the latest version of the Google Messages beta, the text field can expand up to 14 lines before you need to scroll to see what you've typed. It's not yet available in the stable release but should be soon.

Mobile

Google Pixel Watch now gives you scam protection right on your wrist

A person sitting down and wearing the Google Pixel Watch 2.

The Google Pixel Watch 2 and 3 are already among the best smartwatches, but now, Google decked them out with another handy feature. Google is adding Scam Detection to its watches, enhancing security without making you pull your phone out of your pocket.

We all deal with scam calls on a regular basis, and Google's Scam Detection is just one way tech companies try to combat the nuisance (and safety hazard) of these calls. This tool listens to calls and uses AI to detect conversation patterns that scammers have been known to use. If something sounds shady, Scam Detection will send you a notification accompanied by a sound and vibration.