Google Photos looks to be preparing to roll out an in app Map UI for exploring your photos by location

Google Photos is one of the Google Services that just gets it right, most of the time. The service works as promised, gets meaningful enhancements and truly made photo curation easier. As such we’re always excited for a new feature, especially one that looks like it’s going to be released, looking at you object removal!

According to an APK tear down it seems Google is readying our next new feature, and it’s something we’ve been wanting for a while – a maps UI for exploring your images. While you’ve always been able to search for images with location tags, eg New Zealand or India, that has relied on the actual image having location data attached and it’s bee na text based search.

The new feature will firstly present you with a map layout, one would assume very similar to Google Maps, or perhaps Google Earth that will let you pinch and zoom across the globe searching for your location based images. Images will be selected from both photos you have taken and those shared with you, giving you access to all of the images associated in your account.

The other huge change here is that for images that do not have geo-location data embedded Google will also place images based on the content. Have a image of the Taj Mahal in your library sans location details? Chances are Google will recognise the iconic building and add it to the correct location. This is a delightful feature that matches the overall utility of Google Photos other features.

Code in the app also points towards users being able to delete incorrect or unwanted location data from images just in case you don’t want images of downtown Canberra showing up incorrectly in Bali, or perhaps that photo of your broken arm from Spain isn’t a memory you want on your map.

Whatever the reason more user control for MI driven features is exactly what Google needs to be doing, and like the rest of Google Photos we’re expecting the new Explore Map feature to be a winner.