Google Maps gets an iPhone update that'll become an everyday essential for many

If you're an iPhone user, there's a chance you're not even making use of Google Maps. The brand offers its own Apple Maps as an alternative, and that's often baked in as the standard option.

Still, you're going to want to change over, because there's a new feature coming to Google Maps which is going to make planning your next trip a doddle. That lets Google's Gemini look through your screenshots to extract places and add them to your Maps.

Say, for example, you've been planning a trip to London. Perhaps you've been looking at TikToks, or asking Gemini for advice. If you screenshot all of that and add it into the software, Maps can extract the places and put them all on a map for you.

Depending on how much access you allow, you'll either need to manually select images, or the app will trawl through your gallery to locate potential places. It seems to stop short of planning an efficient route for you at this point, though doing that should be much easier once all of the places are in the map.

It's a really neat addition to the iPhone offering. Currently, the feature can be found on Google Maps for iOS in US English, though we'd expect other locations to be included shortly.

And fear not Android phone users – this one is also coming to your handsets. There's no word on exactly when, but we'd expect it shortly. It's unlike Google to let iPhone users enjoy a feature it has created before its own user base, so we don't anticipate this one being sat on for too long.

Personally, I think this could be a game changer. As someone who spends a lot of time travelling, one of my biggest pet peeves is trying to navigate different attractions. Having them all added to a map in a heartbeat should make it much easier to plan trips and not have the annoying feeling of missing something that was only around the corner.