Google might be planning to pull the plug on a Google Maps feature called Followed Places next year. That's according to some strings Android Authority spotted in Google Maps v11.134.0103 beta.
"From Jan 2025, you'll no longer be able to see followed places on Maps. You can download your local followed places from the Maps section of Takeout now," reads one of the strings spotted by the publication. If this turns out to be true, you'll still be able to download your followed places data using Google Takeout.
The feature launched more than five years ago lets you follow your favorite places on Google Maps and get updates about them in the 'For You' tab (later renamed Explore). For that, a 'Follow' button appeared prominently below the name of a business on its Google Maps listing.
With time, Google has made the Follow button less visible on business listings, although, it can't be said when the change started to happen. Google has also reduced mentions of the feature across its support documents, where the search giant now only tells how you can unfollow a business in Google Maps.
Still, you can find the list of all the places you have followed in the past. Tap on the 'Saved' tab in Google Maps > scroll down to the bottom > tap on Following. Note that you can still follow the profiles of other users on Google Maps as you find them in the Explore tab or Updates tab.
With that said, an announcement is yet to arrive from the company. However, one feature that is confirmed to go away is the ability to chat with businesses in Google Maps. Making significant changes to the Timeline feature, Google Maps now saves location history data locally on the user's device.
Other than that, Google is baking some generative AI features for its navigation app, got rid of over 170 million fake reviews, and announced new accessibility features last month.
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