Google has announced a number of new features for Maps in recent weeks, including immersive views of routes, more detailed navigation, and transit filters. Google Maps is currently rolling out a new color palette.
Bright shades of green are used for parks and nature, creating a nice contrast with the off-white to gray roads. (This allowed Google to use white for intersections, making them appear at a more zoomed-out level.)
Speaking of nature, the dashed path is now less noticeable with a new color. Buildings and structures are still gray or bright yellow, depending on their prominent location.
old and new
The highway is a fairly dark gray with some blue tones to keep the theme consistent with the road. It’s a big difference from the tan color we’re used to, but the bright blue color makes it less noticeable in the water. Meanwhile, with less yellow, the restaurant’s orange pins stand out more.
Overall, the changes are very noticeable and make Google Maps feel more alive. Certainly, you have to compare it to Apple Maps.
Google said “Colors throughout the map will be updated.” back in october, testing began in August. Some users have been using this new palette for a few weeks now, but a wider rollout is currently underway on Android and iOS. If you haven’t already, force stop or quit Google Maps from multitasking to load the new colors. I haven’t seen it on the web yet.
Google Maps details:
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