Google is overhauling how users plan trips by rolling out AI features across its key products—Search, Maps, and Lens. Powered by its Gemini model, the updates, which began launching today, aim to replace the friction of traditional itinerary planning with context-aware tools that generate suggestions, visuals, and alerts—often before the user even asks.
The new features includes screenshot-based location recognition in Maps, immersive route previews, global hotel price tracking, and AI-generated itineraries in Search. All of it runs on Gemini, the AI system Google is now embedding across its services and devices.
Screenshots become trip memory aids
One of the more subtle additions could have outsized utility. Maps on iOS now uses Gemini to analyze screenshots saved to a user’s device, detect referenced locations, and surface them on a map. The feature lets users add those places to custom lists without having to manually look them up. Google says Android support is coming soon.
This feature highlights Gemini’s multimodal capabilities, a key strength of the AI model. Gemini can interpret combinations of text, images, and code—enabling it to process visual content in ways earlier assistants could not.
Google has also expanded the languages supported by AI Overviews, Lens, and Circle to Search. Users can now ask questions in Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Portuguese, and Spanish, in addition to English, broadening access to Gemini-powered travel tools worldwide.
Maps upgrades bring planning and preview together
Maps has also added Immersive View for Routes, expanding its 3D capabilities from landmark previews to full walking and cycling directions in select cities. The feature generates a flyover simulation of a given route, layering in live traffic estimates and predicted weather conditions to help users better visualize their journey.
Meanwhile, the Recents tab has evolved into a planning workspace. Users can now organize searched locations into collections, label them, and even prep itineraries directly within Maps. This complements the itinerary functionality now embedded in Search, which can automatically generate day-by-day travel plans for entire countries and regions.
Hotel price tracking and itinerary generation in Search
Google has brought its hotel price tracking model to hotel searches, enabling users to receive email alerts when prices drop on selected hotels for specific dates. The feature is available globally and doesn’t require a separate app—just a logged-in Google account with notifications enabled.
Search queries about travel now often yield AI-generated summaries and itineraries. These overviews are generated using web content but presented in a conversational tone, allowing users to scroll through potential activities, hotels, and transit options without toggling between tabs. However, the AI doesn’t always reflect live availability or last-minute changes, a limitation users should keep in mind.
Gemini replaces Google Assistant across devices
These travel features are powered by Gemini, which Google is now positioning as its core AI assistant. The company recently confirmed it was sunsetting Google Assistant across most devices in favor of Gemini.
Unlike its predecessor, Gemini can interpret user intent using contextual data—like search history, YouTube views, and Maps activity—if enabled. This allows Gemini to generate tailored recommendations, such as restaurant picks based on prior culinary searches or accommodation types aligned with past bookings.
These features rely on Gemini’s advanced reasoning engine which is constlantly improving. The just released 2.5 Pro model scored 91.5% in the MRCR 128K benchmark for long-context comprehension and 81.7% on MMMU, which tests visual reasoning. While that puts it ahead of GPT-4.5 on some metrics, it lags in factual accuracy—posting 52.9% on the SimpleQA dataset compared to GPT-4.5’s 62.5%.
These disparities matter when generating travel recommendations. A trip plan missing a new museum closure or overbooking notice could lead to frustrating outcomes.
Privacy trade-offs and AI in productivity tools
As Gemini becomes more deeply embedded in Google’s ecosystem, some users have raised concerns about how much personal data the assistant can access. In Google Drive, for example, Gemini now offers AI-powered nudges—recommending files based on calendar events or recent activity—and generating automatic summaries.
Google maintains that “Workspace content is not used for advertising” and says user data isn’t used to train models without permission, but questions around transparency and control remain.
These personalization tools are opt-in, and users can disable search history tracking and other inputs that feed Gemini’s responses. Still, the broader shift toward proactive AI raises valid questions about balancing user assistance with autonomy.
Gemini expands into productivity and research
Outside of travel, Google has rolled out several new AI-powered features that underscore Gemini’s role in productivity and research. The recent launch of Gemini Canvas introduced a structured interface for writing and coding tasks, where users can collaborate with AI in a split-pane environment without disrupting their layout.
Audio Overviews for NotebookLM, also launched this March, provide narrated summaries of topics, offering an auditory companion to Gemini’s visual interface—useful for hands-free scenarios like driving or walking.
In research, Google’s NotebookLM platform now also includes a Mind Maps feature, allowing users to transform written content into interactive visual diagrams. Initially launched as Project Tailwind, NotebookLM has evolved into a tool for synthesizing knowledge across multiple sources.
Additionally, Gemini’s Deep Research and Custom Gems, previously gated behind Gemini Advanced, are now available to all users. These features support multi-step reasoning and more precise task handling, adding depth to Gemini’s capabilities for both casual and professional users.
Gemini’s next stop: in the car?
While Gemini is already present across phones and tablets, signs point to future integration into vehicle systems. As reported by Android Police, Android Auto 14 contains early references to Gemini, suggesting that voice-controlled navigation, content suggestions, and travel planning features could soon reach the dashboard.
That move would extend Google’s vision of Gemini as a cross-device assistant, handling user needs whether they’re researching, booking, navigating, or reviewing on the go. If these integrations materialize by summer, travelers could begin and end their trips with Gemini guiding the way.
For now, Google’s focus remains on making the travel planning process more efficient, intuitive, and less fragmented. Whether that means catching a hotel deal through a price alert, previewing a bike route in 3D, or turning a screenshot into a mapped itinerary, the message is clear: Gemini wants to be there at every step.
