If you’ve used Android for a while, you may be familiar with the Google Location History database. This comprehensive collection of location data can be really helpful in managing your life and making use of all the information it gathers. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how to use the Location History database and some of its features.
Ensure Your Google Maps Location History Is Active
To use your Location history, you need to enable it.
- On the left side of the main screen, click on “My Activity.”
- On the left side of the main screen, click on “Google.”
- In the top right corner of the main screen, click on “My Activity.”
- In the top right corner of the main screen, click on “Google My Account.”
On the main page, select Location History in the right pane and click on the arrow to the left of “Last Visit.”
This will allow you to see where you’ve been and where you’re going in your location history.
Google is using your Android phone’s location data to improve your experience on its websites and services. This information will include the places you’ve visited, the time and date of your visit, and the information about what you were looking at on those sites.
Google’s new privacy policy allows the company to track users’ movements even if they’re not logged into their Google account. ..
If you’re concerned about Google tracking your location, you might want to reconsider enabling Location History. However, if you decide to disable it, you won’t be able to take advantage of any of the uses for it described below.
1. Be Reminded of Places You’ve Visited
To get started with viewing your location history, select the Manage activity on the Activity Controls page.
You can search for a specific date or time on the timeline control, or you can scroll through the years.
This timeline control can help you remember the rough time frame you visited a location, like a theme park or restaurant you loved. By using this control, you can easily see how long each visit lasted and how much fun you had.
Select the year you remember visiting and use the dropdown to select the language you remember speaking.
This will produce a list of trips you took during that year. You can even use the Month and Day dropdowns to focus more on the timeframe of your visit. Or just select the day from the list of vertical blue bars if you know exactly what day you visited that location.
To use the day of your trip as a timeline, you’ll need to identify the day of your trip and select it. Once you do, you’ll see a complete timeline of your trip.
This map will include every stop you made on your travels. You’ll also see the entire route as a blue line on the map.
Looking for a place to remember? Check out the timeline below and see where some of your favorite places are. Maybe you’ll find a new favorite spot to visit! ..
The individual location marker in the timeline will give you the name of that location as well as the time on that day that you arrived.
To find a business or location on Google Maps, open the app and select the three dots on the right. Then, select Place details to see Google’s listing for that business or location. ..
If you want to remember a recent location you visited, you can add it to your trip details. To do this, just select the three dots to the right of the nearby location you visited and select the option to Add a stop. Keep in mind this is only available if one of the areas you stopped at had multiple locations or businesses to visit. ..
Timeline is a great way to revisit past trips you went on. This is a great option to plan another trip and go to the same places you visited that you loved so much the first time. ..
2. Quickly Access Very Recent Trips
If you’ve recently gone on a trip, you don’t even have to use the timeline controls. At the bottom of the location activity window, you’ll see the most recent trip you went on and a More Trips link below it to see more of your recent trips.
If you select this, the bottom row will default to the current year and you’ll see a list of boxes for each trip you’ve gone on along with the date range of your trip. You can also click on one of the boxes to get more information about that trip.
You can select any one of these trips to see the trip details view. ..
On the trip details page, you can select any of the days in your trip to zoom into trip details for that day. ..
This app is great if you’re a tourist and need to contact any of the businesses you visited on your trip. It’s also a fun way to review the trip with your family and remember all of the fun things you did together.
3. See All Most Recent Places You’ve Been
There’s a quick way to access not only the most recent places, but all of the places you’ve been sorted from most recent to older trips. ..
To see a list of all the places you’ve been in your Timeline, select the red box on the left of the bottom row and click “All Places.” ..
When you select this, you’ll first see a list of the most recent places you’ve visited. Use the scroll bar at the bottom to move to the right and scroll through those locations.
This is a list of all the places you’ve been. This goes back much further in time. The further to the right you scroll, the further back in time the listing of trips is.
This bottom scrollbar listing is ideal if you’ve taken a trip within the last year or two and want to save time rather than using the timeline control box. With a quick scroll you could easily find that trip you took to Yellowstone National Park a couple of years ago.
4. Set Up Location Highlight Emails
Google is introducing a new feature in its Location History settings that will let you enable regular email updates. These updates will come to your inbox as highlights featuring your most recent trips and places you’ve visited. ..
If you’d like to store an overview like this in your email account, it’s easy to set up these email highlights. ..
On the Timeline settings page, under “When you were here,” select the date range you want to view. Under “What happened,” select the events or activities you want to see. ..
This will open a window with two options.
Google Photos: Any photos you’ve taken during your trip and stored in Google Photos will appear in your timeline whenever you view that trip timeline. Timeline emails: Any time your timeline gets updated with a new trip, you’ll receive an email listing the highlights of that trip. ..
The timeline emails option is a great way to get a reminder of any new content that has been automatically updated to your timeline. This way if there’s anything in that trip that you actually don’t want logged, you can go in and delete individual stops you made.
5. Using Saved Places
Google has just announced a new feature called “Manage your personal places.” This will allow you to manage all of your saved places on Google Maps. ..
This includes any map lists you’ve created, places you’ve attached a label to, and maps you’ve saved or downloaded.
If you want to see a list of all the places you’ve ever been, click on the History tab. This will show you a list of all the places in your Google Location History, as well as any location updates that have been made since your last visit. ..
This is a great way to see your most recent timeline entries from within Google Maps. It’s also a fast way to access your Location timeline from Google Maps, without having to remember the link to your My Activity page.
Google Maps Location History Is Useful
Many people are concerned about the privacy implications of letting Google store every single location you ever visit with your mobile device. However, if you maintain an excellent password for your Google account and use two-factor authentication, you really don’t have anything to worry about.
Your Google Maps Location history can be a great way to remember information from your past trips. You’ll be able to more easily revisit places you loved, and keep a record of your trips so that you can travel down memory lane whenever you like.
