Google Maps is getting updated and a new feature will let users create Street View photos using just a smartphone.
According to a Google blog post, users with ARCore-compatible devices will now be able to capture images and publish it to Google Street View in certain areas.
Photos taken by users will appear in the layer on Google Maps' app with blue lines, and anyone can contribute a street view photo to their app.
Currently, Google is allowing submissions in Toronto, New York, Austin, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Costa Rica, but will expand the feature to other regions soon.
According to Stafford Marquardt, product manager of Google Maps Street View, although Google already has more than 170 billion images of 10 million miles around the world, there are still "many unmapped parts of the world."
"That’s why for years we've been building new ways for people to contribute their own imagery to Google Maps," said Marquardt. "In fact, we've seen millions of Street View images contributed from people in every country on Earth, from Bermuda and Tonga to Zanzibar and Zimbabwe."
Marquardt said the hope of this is to help make Google Maps more accurate and up-to-date for everyone.
"We can use the information in Street View imagery to update Google Maps with details like the names and addresses of businesses that aren’t currently on the map and maybe even their publicly posted open hours," Marquardt added.
