Given that Google Maps and Android are under Google’s umbrella, it would actually make sense for Google to bring new features to the Android version of Google Maps first. However that doesn’t seem to be the case, at least not for some features because you might recall back in May, Google launched a new feature for Google Maps on iOS that introduced custom navigation icons.
This allowed users to choose their navigation icon where instead of a blue arrow, they could choose between several types of colorful vehicles. Now according to a recent APK teardown by the folks at 9to5Google, it looks like similar functionality will be coming to Android in a future build. As you can see in the screenshot above, this pretty much brings those icons that iOS users have been enjoying onto the Android version of Google Maps.
In addition to the custom navigation icons, the APK teardown also reveals a feature that Google actually promised back at I/O earlier this year. This is the Group Planning feature where users can create shareable lists of locations, and where those who are part of the group can then upvote or downvote the locations which will then tally up the results. No word on a release date yet but if it’s in the APK, it shouldn’t be too far off.
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