Imagine you’re planning a weekend trip to a new city. You open Google Maps, find a cool café, and wonder if it’s worth visiting. Instead of searching for reviews on Google Maps separately, what if you could just ask Gemini right there? Google is working on a new feature that makes this possible.
Google Maps pulls a new Gemini-powered “Ask about place” but it’s not here yet
In the latest version of the Google app beta v16.4.35, a new “Ask about place” chip appears when you open Gemini while using Google Maps. This chip attaches a Maps link to your question, letting Gemini provide information about specific locations instantly.
Android Authority managed to enable this feature and shared a preview (video embedded below). Right now, it works for places inside a city but doesn’t appear when searching for entire cities. This could be a bug that gets fixed before the official launch. App researcher AssembleDebug spotted this feature, which allows users to ask Gemini about locations directly from Google Maps. When you tap the “Ask about place” chip, it adds a Maps link to Gemini, making it easy to get details like reviews, restaurant recommendations, hours, or directions.
Unlike Gmail and YouTube, which have received AI-powered tools, Google Maps has remained mostly unchanged — likely because navigation requires accuracy. And AI mistakes here could be risky. But last year, Google started letting Gemini answer location-based questions, and now, a deeper integration is on the way.
For now, the feature isn’t widely available, but once it rolls out, it could make finding information in Google Maps even easier. That’s really something useful. While I have yet to encounter such issues, SammyGuru’s editor Jeff Springer adds that he was actually “annoyed that Gemini can’t do this already” when he was looking for something nearby. Perhaps Jeff and others can soon rely on Gemini for such stuff.
