On Thursday, Google unveiled a range of new features across its platforms, incorporating both artificial intelligence (AI) enhancements and standard updates designed to streamline vacation and trip planning for users. The company, headquartered in Mountain View, emphasized that these advancements aim to provide users with improved resources for organizing their travels. Upgrades to AI Overviews in Search, Maps, and Lens will soon enable users to explore trip ideas and details related to smaller municipalities, regions, and entire nations.
Google Unveils New Trip Planning Features
In a recent blog update, Google outlined its latest features ahead of the summer travel season as schools and colleges prepare for breaks. These enhancements, both AI-driven and traditional, are designed to facilitate a more seamless trip planning experience.
The AI Overviews feature in Google Search will now allow users to generate trip suggestions for various countries and geographic areas. For example, users can enter a query like “create an itinerary for Costa Rica with a focus on nature,” prompting an AI-generated snapshot that includes photos and reviews from fellow travelers. An interactive map will also assist in creating travel routes based on the available information. Users will have the option to export these recommendations through Docs or Gmail, or save them as a customized list within Maps.
This feature is currently available in English for users in the United States, accessible on both mobile and desktop platforms without the need for sign-up in Search Labs, as it is not classified as an experimental feature.
In addition, Google Maps is receiving an update that enables users to search for locations based on screenshots taken on their devices. Google noted that travelers often capture multiple screenshots while researching destinations. With this update, users can easily upload these images to Maps, where the Gemini technology will identify and display the locations, allowing for route planning or exploration of nearby attractions. This functionality is being rolled out to iOS users in the U.S. and currently supports only English, with plans for Android users to follow soon.
Furthermore, Google is introducing a hotel price tracking feature that enables users to monitor rate changes for selected accommodations. This tool can be accessed by using the price-tracking toggle located beneath the search filters. If prices drop significantly for listed hotels, users will receive an automatic email notification. This feature is now available globally on mobile and desktop browsers.
The company is also making Gems—mini chatbots powered by Gemini—available to all users at no cost. This allows users on the free tier of Gemini to create customized chatbots, including those designed to generate personalized trip itineraries through simple text prompts. Gems can be managed via the “Gems manager” on the desktop version but are not yet available on the mobile app.
Finally, the AI Overviews feature in Google Lens and Circle to Search is set to expand its language support from only English to include Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish, in regions where the AI capability is offered.
