Now is the time to start planning your next vacation because summer break will soon be upon us. Check out these Gemini, Lens, Search, and Maps updates that will help you plan the perfect trip and enjoy it.
In This Content
1. With AI Overviews in Search, get travel ideas
AI Overviews in Search can already help you visualize your trip with a day-by-day itinerary for things to do and restaurants to enjoy, whether you have a destination in mind or are still weighing your options. Also, starting this week, you can get ideas for trips not just to New York or Rome but also to other parts of the country or regions. To begin, simply conduct a search for something like “create an itinerary for Costa Rica with a focus on nature.” You can then look through user-contributed photos and reviews and view locations on an expandable map from there. And when you’re ready, you can tap “Export” to share the recommendations through Docs or Gmail, or save them as a custom list in Google Maps for access on-the-go.AI Overviews is available on desktop and mobile for English-language queries in the United States; Search Labs membership is not required.
2. Utilize hotel price tracking to save money
You can now sign up for hotel price alerts using Google Flights, just like you can for flights. There is now a new way to keep track of prices for your chosen dates and destination when you go to google.com/hotels. If the prices of any of the hotels in the results drop significantly, you will receive an email by tapping the price-tracking toggle below the search filters. Our systems will take into account the specific location you’re looking at on the map as well as the filters you’ve chosen, like star rating or beach access. This week, hotel price tracking will be available worldwide on desktop and mobile browsers.
3. With Google Maps, turn your screenshots into plans
When you’re making plans for a vacation, you probably write down the places you want to go in a notes app or research the best places to go through social media, news articles, and travel blogs. You probably also take a lot of screenshots along the way! However, we are all aware of how simple it is to overlook those photos in your camera roll. Now, all you need to do to keep track of these places is open Maps. If you select to enable the brand-new “screenshot” list, Maps’ Gemini capabilities will identify locations mentioned in your screenshots for you to review and add to a useful list. You can easily share the list with your travel companions, and the saved locations will appear on the map. This feature will begin rolling out this week in English on iOS and will soon be available on Android.
4. Ask Gemini for some travel ideas
The beginning of a trip plan is frequently the hardest part. Do you desire a vacation in the tropics? OR, should you go to a brand-new large city? Gemini, your personal AI assistant, can assist you in coming up with ideas and locating relevant travel-related information. You could ask something like “find me the cheapest flights to Europe and YouTube videos on what to do on a budget in each of those places.”
To create your very own trip planner Gem, you can also try Gemini’s Gems feature, a tool that lets you customize Gemini to create your very own AI expert. You can now use a travel guide to help you decide where to go, where to eat in a new city, and even what to bring. Gems are now free for everyone; to create a new Gem, go to the “Gems manager” on your desktop. Pro tip: Use the magic wand icon below the instructions text box so Gemini can help draft up your instructions; just start with a quick sentence and Gemini can take it from there.
5. Make use of AI-powered Lens as your tour guide
Lens in the Google app for Android and iOS makes it simple to learn more about your surroundings when you’re out and about. You might be in Florence and want to learn more about the mysterious wooden windows that you have been seeing everywhere. Simply pose the question, “What are these used for?” with your camera. An AI Overview with insights and links to online resources will be provided to you. In most countries where AI Overviews are available, AI Overviews in Lens (and Circle to Search) are already available for English queries and will soon be available in Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Speaking of languages, Lens is an excellent companion for translating a variety of documents, including flyers, menus, street signs, and more. Simply pointing your camera and tapping the translate filter will transform the words in front of your eyes.