Why now
Google Trips comes back 10 years later, this time with Gemini
Google Trips launched in 2016 as a separate app. It gathered reservations from Gmail and offered day plans and offline guides, and it closed on 5 August 2019.
The same day, then and now
Google Trips, 2016Original app screen, New Orleans · © Google
Good ideas often fail on timing rather than substance. In 2016, a trip planner had to ask people to do the planning themselves. Today they already plan with AI, then check the result in Maps.
Google Trips, 2016–2019
Trips in Maps
Where A separate app to download Inside Maps
How Day plans assembled by hand Gemini or AI Mode in Google Search turns the plan into a trip
What Day plans and offline guides, read like a list A live path on the map, live detours and suggestions on the go
Who One person's trip One shared plan, edit/view rights and location sharing
Then The trip ends with the app A summary, badge, and a trip others can copy
With the introduction of Ask Maps, powered by Gemini’s models, the plan can finally live on the map, and keep adjusting as the day changes: suggesting what fits, re-timing what doesn’t, and noticing when you wander off. That makes the Trips concept less a new product than the natural next step for Maps.
What's different this time
location_on It starts where plans get checked Everyone I interviewed checks their plan in Maps. Trips meets them there, rather than asking for one more app.
auto_awesome Gemini lowers the setup cost Building the itinerary used to be the work. Ask Maps can turn saved places or a Gemini chat into a first draft of the days, ready to edit.
conversion_path It shows up only when you travel No new tab. On a normal day trips sit under You, and on travel days trip mode turns on, with a one-tap exit.
Patterns
5 patterns that work beyond trips
Trips is a set of small, horizontal patterns. Each one is useful well beyond Maps: anywhere a result can become part of a plan.
Best fit Place a result into a plan by time and route, instead of a form.
auto_awesome Day 3 · 12:30open lunch
Restaurants Events Flights
Inline booking state Booked, to book, or not needed, shown where the plan is, not in an inbox.
check_circle Booked · 2confirmation_number Book · €8
Restaurants Events
Sidequest suggestion A nearby alternative offered as an option, never as a correction. Keep, compare or adapt.
explore A hot spring, 2 min away · free
Things to do AI Mode
Planned vs. found One colour pair separates what you chose from what you found: solid blue and light dotted green.
Itineraries Summaries Timeline
Colour per person Everyone who adds a place or splits off gets a colour and a face, so who brought what reads at a glance without a new screen.
A Pico do Ferro at sunset · added by Anna
Group dining Events Shared trips
How I built it
Built on real routes and places
filter_center_focus Simple on purpose The test case is one island, three days and three friends: no crossings between islands, no flights, no change of hotel. Keeping the trip simple let me explore the idea itself. Real trips are messier, like island-hopping in Greece with ferries in between, and building this for real means handling many edge cases this prototype leaves out.
map Real geography Every road and trail comes from routing data: 217 km by car and 11.1 km on foot across three days. The map is restyled to the Google Maps palette, sampled from the app itself.
place Real places Stops and photos are real places, checked on the map. Restaurante Tony´s shows its Google Maps rating and Parque Terra Nostra its Google rating via Wanderlog, both from Oct 2026. The other ratings and opening hours are illustrative.
auto_awesome AI as a design material Built with AI coding tools in days: the prototype, the scroll story, the exports and the data pipeline. Design decisions stayed human: what to cut, what to name, and what to leave open.
animation Motion with a job Every transition explains something: Explore turning into Trip, a place dropping onto the path, a walk drifting off it.
User research
Trips are scattered
photo_library Photos & videos Ideas from TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Google posts.Saved in other apps
auto_awesome AI chats ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini drafts the days.Checked by hand
sticky_note_2 Notes & PDFs The plan lives in a note, Notion or a PDF.Pasted into Maps by hand
map Checked in Maps Distances, a base, one area a day.Maps has no days
explore_off On the day A closure or a long day breaks the plan.Re-planned from scratch
Every plan passes through Maps, but none of it stays there. Trips gives the plan a home on the map.
Three conversations
People plan with AI
Two of the three plan with AI, with ideas from TikTok and Instagram. All three check the plan in Maps: distances, a base, one area a day. Group plans live in a shared Apple Note and get copied into Maps by hand. Plans bend, between 60 and 90% followed, and food is found on the spot.
D Denys Planner AI itinerary, double-checked in Maps Restaurants found on the spot Sometimes overplans Read the interview A Andrea Spontaneous Plans in a PDF, one area a day Maps is the base: distances from the hotel Stars places on the go Read the interview A Anta Wanderer Plans with ChatGPT and TikTok The group plan lives in a shared Apple Note Often decides activities on the spot Read the interview
Notes from short conversations, translated where needed and lightly edited.
photo_library Ideas come from photos and short videos · 3/3 TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Google posts. Kept out of scope on purpose: Trips starts once places have names, and a screenshot of a list is enough for Ask Maps to build the trip.
event_available Only the anchors get booked ahead · 3/3 Flights and beds come first, plus the odd anchor like a famous restaurant. So Ask Maps flags what needs booking, and Tony's comes with a table.
battery_3_bar Tiredness breaks plans more than logistics · 2/3 The most packed trip held only 60%. Ask Maps plans a balanced pace by default and leaves room to wander.
What I set out to learn
Where does a trip plan start, and where does it live? How does a list of places become days? What does Maps do before and during the trip? How much of the plan survives the day, and what breaks it? What changes when the trip is with a group? Limits
Three people, all aged 23 to 30: patterns to test, not proof. Denys mostly described his girlfriend's planning, so the person who plans wasn't interviewed. Notes, not recordings, so every line is paraphrased. Past trips, told from memory. Next, I'd talk to someone who saves places in Maps, someone who doesn't plan with AI, and a traveller over 40.
Summary
3 interviews · Oct 2026 · ages 23 to 30
Ask Maps
Ask Maps knows the trip, the day and where you are
Ask Maps is the same chat as everywhere else in Maps, opened from the chip at the start of the chips row. Inside a trip it already knows the day, where you are, what's next and who you're with, so a question can be as short as "somewhere for lunch?"
How it works
One entry point The Ask Maps chip sits first in the chips row on every screen, planning or travelling. On a trip's own sheet, where the chips are hidden, Ask Maps leads the trip's actions, and once you scroll past it an Ask about this trip bar fades in at the bottom. One chat with one history, not a new assistant per feature. It opens as a half sheet, so the plan draws on the real map above it.
Context instead of questions It reads what you saved and how places cluster, so "plan my trip" is enough to get three days, one area each.
Answers you can act on Mid-trip it knows the day and where you are. Every place comes with Go now, which starts a sidequest, or Add to plan, which fits it in.
You stay in control Nothing changes the plan without a tap. A created trip flags the one thing worth booking, lunch on Day 3, and says why in a line, instead of booking it for you.
Back to the chat Ask Maps sits first in the trip's actions, and an Ask about this trip bar fades in once you scroll past it. Both reopen the chat that made the trip, already on it, with next steps like adding a place for a day or swapping two days.
From AI Mode
AI Mode is the conversational mode of Google Search, powered by Gemini. Many trips start there, or in an ordinary Search result. Wherever it starts, one new action sends what you found into the trip in Maps, so nothing gets retyped.
Plan in AI Mode You ask AI Mode for a trip and keep chatting to shape it. Save as a trip in Maps turns the answer into the trip from the first chapter, with days already grouped by area.
search 3 days in São Miguel, no car on day one
auto_awesome AI ModeAll Images Maps
Here's a plan grouped by area, so you never backtrack:
Day 1 Ponta Delgada on foot: market, gardens, city gates
Day 2 Sete Cidades crater lakes and the Ferraria springs
Day 3 Furnas: fumaroles, cozido lunch, Terra Nostra
conversion_path Save as a trip in MapsSwap days
Ask a follow-upmic
A place in Search Search for a restaurant and its result shows Reserve, as it does today. Once a trip exists, Add to trip sits next to it with best fit filled in: the Furnas day has a lunch gap at 12:30.
search restaurante tony's furnas
All Maps Images Reviews
Restaurante Tony´s 4.3 ★★★★ (10,102) · Portuguese · Furnas
Open · Closes 3:30 pm
event Reserveadd_location_alt Add to trip · Day 3, 12:30
A flight in Google Flights A flight found in Google Flights can join the trip too. Its arrival sets when Day 1 starts, so nothing gets planned before you land.
search lisbon to ponta delgada 14 nov
All flight FlightsMaps
Lisbon → Ponta Delgada Sat 14 Nov · direct · 2 h 20 · lands 11:05
flight_land Add to trip · Day 1 starts 11:05
Search, AI Mode and Flights screens are illustrative mocks. Tony´s rating is from Google Maps, Oct 2026.
Edge cases
Nothing booked for you A new plan books nothing. Ask Maps flags only the one place worth booking ahead, like lunch on a day with few places to eat, says why in one line, and leaves the booking to you.
A screenshot instead of a prompt A note, a list or a chat with place names can be attached with +. Ask Maps finds each place on the map and builds the days; a name it can't match comes back as a question, not a guess.
A vague question "Something fun nearby" gets two or three options close to your path, sorted by how soon you can be there, not a long list.
A request that breaks the plan "Can we fit Sete Cidades today?" shows the cost first: which stops move, which booking changes and what gets dropped.
A place that's closed or full Opening hours and bookings are checked before anything is suggested. If a table is needed, it says so and offers a time.
No signal Answers fall back to the downloaded trip area and your saved places, and say they're offline.
Travelling with friends Suggestions use the position of people who share it. For everyone else, they're based on yours.
A wrong answer Every answer links its sources, like reviews and the place's website, and can be reported. It never books on its own.
Not on a trip Ask Maps works as it does today. Plan a trip only appears when your saved places cluster in one destination.
Planning the trip
One trip, from the first save to the last day
Places, days, bookings and people live in one trip under You. Every way into a trip ends in the same itinerary, so there's only one thing to learn.
How it works
Start anywhere From saved places with Ask Maps, from a plan made in AI Mode, from a link a friend shares, or empty with New trip.
Days follow areas Places are grouped by area, so a day doesn't cross the island twice. Each day shows how you travel and how far, like "Car + on foot · 112 km". It's how Andrea already plans, by hand.
Booking recommended When a day has few places to eat, the trip says so and offers just those few: best fit first, each with its free tables and what it costs your day. Party, day and time sit on top, set once to everyone on the trip and the lunch slot, and each place says whether it has a table then. See on map redraws the day's path through that place, so a detour shows as a longer line; Add to trip books the table and puts it on the day.
Add to trip from any place One new action on every place sheet, next to Directions. Nothing else on the sheet changes.
Best fit and bookings Best fit picks the day and time from opening hours and distance, and a table can be reserved in the same step. Tapping it opens Maps' own booking screen on top, with the date already set to the day and the party set to everyone on the trip; closing it returns to the picker.
Inside a trip
add_location_alt Ask Maps, right at the top First in the trip's actions, before Invite friends, like Ask on a place sheet. It suggests places that fit a day, or adds one you name; Best fit puts it on the day and time that suit it. A place found in search still has Add to trip on its sheet.
face Who added what Places from your own stars stay plain. Once friends are on the trip, every place carries the face of whoever added it, you, Anna or Marco, so the list shows at a glance who brought what. Before anyone joins, nothing carries a face. Friends add on their own time: while you book lunch, Marco adds a tea factory and both leave their picks for the afternoon. Bookings say who made them, Booked by you or Booked by Marco. Later changes arrive as a notification with the place's photo. No approvals between friends; everyone edits the same plan.
undo Removing a place Tap it, then the In your trip toggle on its sheet. It leaves the plan, and Undo puts it back.
group_add A friend joins Bookings follow the people on the trip. Open one to change how many and what time.
Edge cases
A place that fits no day It goes to Maybe later instead of being squeezed into a full day.
Afternoon picks A part of the day can stay open with the group's picks in it: a time range, a dashed dot with no number, the places friends like with a heart count, their photos stacked. No vote to run; it stays open until someone adds one.
Two trips on the same dates Add to trip asks which one, and trip mode follows the trip you're actually in.
A place closed on its day It's flagged in the itinerary before you travel, with a day when it's open.
A trip without dates It stays a draft with a list and a map, like Rwanda. Trip mode never turns on.
A booking made elsewhere If you allow it, the confirmation in Gmail attaches itself to the right day.
Deleting a trip Saved places stay saved. Only the order, the days and the links to bookings go.
During the trip
The plan holds when the day changes
Trip mode turns on by itself on the trip's dates. Search stays on top, your path fills the map, and the sheet shows where you are in the day and what's next.
How it works
Trip mode, one tap away On the trip's dates and inside its area, Explore offers the day instead of switching on its own: "You've landed. Start your trip?" One tap turns the first tab into Trip; a layover elsewhere never triggers it, and Later keeps everyday Maps.
Day 1 takes over the map The day's path fills the map, search stays on top, and the sheet shows where you are and what's next.
Running late When a day slips, Maps protects what can't move and suggests what still fits. Forty minutes behind in Sete Cidades, Marco's Ferraria booking still says 15:00, so it counts back to Leave by 14:20; Mosteiros now falls after sunset, so Gemini offers two places nearby that still catch the light, with a third one tap away. It comes straight from the research: tiredness and long stops break plans more than logistics.
Stops, not sidequests Gas, parking and toilets are searched along the route and added as stops. They keep you on the plan and never count as sidequests.
How the path reads
flight_land Day 1 starts on its own Land, reach the hotel, and trip mode is already on: you are here, the first stop up next, a short walk away.
route Grey behind, blue ahead What's behind you turns grey, and everything still ahead stays the solid blue path, on the map and in the list, so the day left to do is the line you can see.
Edge cases
alarm Bookings with a check-in time A horse ride that wants you there 30 minutes early becomes "Leave by 13:50" on the day, counted back from the booking, the drive and the buffer.
schedule A booking at risk Later stops re-time themselves, and any booking at risk is flagged with a way to move it.
rainy Rain or a closure Ask Maps proposes a swap: "Rain on Sunday in Sete Cidades. Swap Day 2 and Day 3?" One tap, bookings move with it where partners allow.
restaurant Meals follow you Running late on a sidequest and lunch is 25 minutes away? Gemini offers places close to where you are, or moves the booking, instead of the one you planned.
schedule Hours that clash The itinerary checks every stop against live hours and flags clashes before you leave, not at the door.
download_for_offline Offline by default The trip area downloads automatically on Wi-Fi before you fly. Islands, mountains and roaming bills make this essential.
Group
One shared plan. Anyone can wander off.
A trip can be shared with the people you travel with, and anyone can leave the path for a while without breaking it. Maps notices a sidequest, asks once and keeps the plan waiting; each person gets a colour, so who added what and who went where reads at a glance.
Sidequests
Notice About 500 m off the path on foot, and only once you haven't turned back for a few minutes. By car, a few kilometres. Units follow your Maps settings.
Choose Add sidequest keeps the plan waiting and draws your walk in green dots. Update plan folds the place into today and re-times what's next.
Decide who sees it Each sidequest is visible to the group or kept to yourself. It counts in your summary either way.
Come back Back to trip shows the way to your next stop. Meet at picks a spot for the whole group.
Together
Invite A new trip starts with just you. Invite friends sits at the top of the trip, next to Ask Maps, where Maps lists put Invite collaborators. Once friends join, they edit the same itinerary instead of a shared note full of links, and their faces show on what they add. The prototype skips the share link and the wait: Anna and Marco join on the tap.
Location is opt-in Sharing is set per trip, is off by default and ends when the trip does. Each sidequest can be shown to the group or kept private.
A colour each, and Meet at Every place carries the face of who added it, and sidequests show in each person's colour. Meet at starts with where you are, a request the others come to, instead of dropping your location in a group chat. A spot in the middle of everyone or your next stop are the other options, and it's sent to everyone.
Meet anywhere Meet at offers two places: where you are, or one in the middle of everyone. Anywhere else is a tap on the map: its place sheet has Meet here, and the others get it with how long it takes them.
How inviting works
The guided prototype lets friends join on the tap. In Maps, it would follow the shared lists people already know: you choose what people with the link can do, they get an invite that shows who's already on the trip, and once in, the trip reads Joined.
Share the trip Share opens a sheet like a shared list's. Instead of an on/off switch, people with the link get a role: Can edit (add places, change days, book) or Can view (see the plan and follow along).
The invite Anna opens the link on the trip's map. The invite says who's already on it and what she can do, and that the others will see her name and picture. Not now or Join.
Joined On her side, the trip reads You and 2 others, with Joined first in the actions. She edits the same plan as everyone else.
A friend's place arrives When someone adds a place, the others get a notification with the place's photo, as the creator of a group planning shortlist does. Tapping it opens the trip on that place, marked Added by Anna.
Edge cases
A short detour A coffee or a toilet stop stays under the threshold, so nothing happens.
You never answer It quietly becomes a sidequest. Nothing reroutes and nothing is lost.
Leaving by car There's no prompt while you drive. Maps asks once you've stopped.
It runs long When a sidequest starts to cost the next booking, Maps offers to move the booking or suggests heading back.
Your next stop closes The sheet flags it and suggests a replacement before you walk back.
It becomes the day After a while, Maps asks once whether to make it today's plan.
You were just lost Mark it as not a sidequest, and it won't count toward your badge.
No signal The walk is recorded on the phone and synced later.
Someone doesn't share location Meet at uses the place they last chose to share, or asks them where they are.
Two people change the same day Both changes show, each with its person's face, so no edit disappears silently.
A friend without Maps They get a read-only link to the plan on the web.
Someone leaves early Their stops stay in their colour, and the plan carries on for everyone else.
Different paces People can be on different sidequests at the same time. The plan waits for each of them.
Privacy
Your trip stays private unless you share it
smartphone Summaries are built on the phone Timeline already lives on the device. The trip summary, distances and sidequest share are built from it locally.
visibility_off Sidequests without location sharing Friends see "Marco went on a sidequest" and a meeting point, not where he is, unless he chooses to share.
ios_share Shared only on purpose The share card shows a route shape, not timestamps or a home address.
Impact
A reason to open Maps before, during and after a trip
auto_awesome A flagship use for Ask Maps "Plan my trip from my stars" is a high-intent, high-value prompt that only Maps can answer well.
event_available Bookings through Maps Itinerary slots create natural moments to reserve tables, tickets and stays with partners.
favorite A reason to come back Badges and summaries turn a trip into a memory that lives in Maps, and the next trip starts there.
edit_location_alt New content for Local Guides Published trips and sidequests are new, structured content for Local Guides.
Metrics to watch Trips created from saved places · share of itinerary stops booked through Maps · sidequest acceptance rate · Ask Maps sessions per trip · return rate for the next trip.
Roadmap
Small steps first. The big change only if it earns its place.
0 · Validate Diary study with travellers who star places before trips. Test this prototype with 8 to 12 people.
1 · Plan Trips under You, Add to trip, an Ask Maps itinerary from saved places, and offline download.
2 · Travel Trip mode on the trip's dates, the live path, and sidequests with Keep, Compare and Adapt.
3 · Share Groups, summaries and badges, and published trips.
Changing the first tab is the biggest ask, so it ships behind a flag with a one-tap exit, only on a trip's dates and location, and only after Phase 1 proves people want trips in Maps.