Google’s Street View app prepares to add a new way to share your surroundings

Google started testing a new “Driving Mode” in the Street View app last year to help users contribute to the platform without requiring a 360° camera. The new feature lets users record their journeys on their phone’s camera and upload it to the Street View database in order to help fellow Street View users. Google is now preparing to add another such feature to increase user contribution to the platform.

An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.

A teardown of version 2.0.0.357726500 of the Street View app for Android has revealed new strings of code that talk about a new mode called “Photo Path.” The code suggests that this mode will let users “Create a series of photos, by moving along a street or path,“ resulting in a short clip for other Street View users.

<string name="photo_path_subtext">Create a series of photos, by moving along a street or path</string>

The app also includes a video that demos what a Photo Path will look like, along with an icon for the new feature.

As you can see in the attached video, the feature will automatically stitch photos captured by users into a short clip. Although the clip doesn’t look all that great, it will likely be more than enough to help other users find their way around a location.

Photo Path icon (Gray background not included)

 

The feature will probably work a lot like the aforementioned Driving Mode, allowing users to share pictures of their surroundings while on foot. The collected data will then be incorporated into the Street View database to help other users. As of now, the feature isn’t live in the current Street View release, and Google hasn’t shared any official information about it. We’ll update this post as soon as it rolls out with a future update.

Google Street View (Free, Google Play) →

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