It was already easy to “star” your favorite places on Google Maps — just look up a place and tap the star icon. These starred places are stored in the “Your places” section of the navigation drawer — but if you constantly star your favorite places, it used to be quite difficult to find them again because you had to scroll through a giant list.
The new update improves on the ability to save places by letting users create lists to organize them — they’re still stored in the same place for quick access.
When you Google a place on your phone, you see a glimpse of location data, hours, and more from Google Maps. Tapping into that data opens up the Google Maps app if you have it installed — and here, you can click on “Save.” Save isn’t a star icon anymore, instead it resembles a checklist.
When you tap Save, Maps will pull up your lists — there are preset lists such as “Favorites,” “Want to go,” and “Starred places.” You can also create a new list directly from here, if you don’t want to use the one of the presets. You can create lists about anything, and they’re easily shareable with your friends and family.
For example, if you plan a museum trip in a new city you’re visiting, you can add them all to a “Museums” to visit list. Once you’re done with your trip, you can share this list to anyone else who asks. Some other examples for lists are restaurants you want to check out, your ever-growing list of favorite bars, the best salons, and more.
When you go into the list, a share icon pops up at the top and you can send it out via a link.
You can’t create lists on the web yet, but the update is rolling out to Android and iOS devices today.
