Google has built a secondary company – Niantic Labs – which has been quietly been building location aware products like the augmented reality game Ingress and the tourist friendly app Field Trip for the last few years. Field Trip, while functional and indeed extremely useful, hasn’t been the glamour child of Niantic, and it could be about to get even less so, with the information from Field Trip about to show up in Google Now, without you having to install the app.
The information from Field Trip will show up in Google Now as a card entitled ‘Nearby discoveries’ and will contain information that regular Field Trip users will already be familiar with, displaying information like nearby points of interest, restaurants, and historical facts.
Android Police contacted Niantic Labs, and were advised that the information will show up sans app, that’s right, there’s no need for the app to be installed for you to receive the information. They do speculate that the Nearby Discoveries card may only show up when you’re away from home, while the Field Trip app may be required for when you’re around town.
The Field Trip app is still an interesting app to have installed on your phone, when the Nearby Discoveries card will begin showing up isn’t certain, but let us know if you start seeing it in your feed..
And I’ve never heard of the field trip app (definitely don’t have it installed either).
I’ve seen nearby discoveries in google now cards many times when travelling. I swear I’ve seen it for months at least. When I was in Canberra a while ago it came up with the Australian war museum, questacon, etc.
What you’ve seen is Places Nearby which has been in Google Now since it’s inception. This is slightly different.
Interestingly there are some strings referencing Field Trip in the latest version of Ingress.
Be interesting to see how Google and Niantic incorporate that