Like everyone else, you probably use Google Maps to calculate routes. But the app also has a little-known function to guide you to places you wouldn’t think of.
Over time, Google Maps has become a valuable tool in our daily lives, whether to know a route, find a nice restaurant for lunch, obtain the opening hours of a store or check the level of attendance at a tourist site. The application even indicates the entrances to certain buildings! It has truly established itself as the reference tool to guide us through the streets around the world.
And in this multitude of functions, some still remain unknown. One of them, particularly useful, is often overshadowed by classic route calculations and satellite views: indoor maps. Indeed, who has never felt lost in a large shopping center? Who has never walked in circles in a museum looking for the desired exhibition room? Who has never wandered like a lost soul in an airport, looking for their meeting point or terminal?
However, few people know this, but certain large buildings have their own maps in Google Maps. This is the case for certain airports, shopping centers, train stations, concert halls and even museums, such as the terminals of Charles de Gaulle airport, the German Museum in Munich, the Stade de France, certain Carrefour brands, Unibail Rodamco, Fnac, Leroy Merlin and Leclerc, Galeries Lafayette and Les 4 Temps in La Défense.
Thus, the application displays detailed plans of the different floors, corridors and shops, thus facilitating our navigation in these often labyrinthine spaces. In the Carrefour d’Auteuil, in Paris, it even indicates the different departments! We’ll finally know where these damn pickles are that we’re looking for every time!
This option is automatically activated when you zoom in on a compatible location, provided you are in map mode, and not in satellite mode. Sometimes a series of numbers appears on the right side to indicate the floors of the building. By clicking on the one that interests you, the floor plan in question is displayed and you can even get a precise route to guide you!
As with exterior mapping, these interior plans allow you to precisely visualize the location of stores, stairs, or check-in counters. A valuable help in places where it is easy to get lost. This service, which covers locations in many major cities around the world, can also indicate points of interest such as toilets or entrances. So, the next time you enter a large complex, don’t hesitate to take out your phone! You may find a much more detailed map than you expected.