How you can use Google Maps as a social network

These profiles open up another feature on Google Maps: follow and be followed. The idea is that you want to follow local experts whose opinions you value about the places you go, as well as friends and family. To follow someone in the Google Maps app for Android or iOS, touch the person’s name in a comment or review and choose follow.

To see your own followers, use the shortcut mentioned above within the Google Maps app: Contribute, then View your profile. Touch Followers link (which will have a number next to it, even if it’s zero) to see who’s following you. You can also see the people you’re following (and stop following people, if necessary).

To manually approve each new follower you get, tap Edit profile, then Profile and privacy settings your profile and activate the Restricted profile light switch. When your profile is restricted, only your followers can see your comments and ratings on Google Maps, as well as the list of who you’re following.

Use the news feed

If you touch Upgrades then For you on the Google Maps mobile app, you’ll see a kind of news feed: it gets updates from the people and companies you follow, as well as adding updates about places nearby that Google’s algorithms think you might be interested in (changes to the local restaurant, for example).

Touch the three dots in the upper right corner of anything in this feed to find options to edit some of the ways the feed works – you can specify the areas you’re interested in and what you don’t like, indicate which updates match your tastes and which don’t, and much more.

If you tap to open the To explore and open the information tab below, you’ll see a similar list of updates based on the area you’re currently in. We noticed some overlap between the two screens in terms of the photos and updates that were shown, but if you’re in a new or unusual place that you don’t visit often, the Explore tab will probably become more useful.

Add ratings and comments