How to Find Your Direction of Travel Using Google Maps

Whether you’re on a trip to an unknown place or hiking with your friends on hilly terrain, Google Maps is one of the best and most popular navigational tools or applications you can use to find your way back.

Being one of the most popular digital maps services, Google Maps is used by over a billion users across the globe, with 72% of all maps users relying on and using the Google Maps application. It is available on the web, Android, and iOS devices.

It’s one of the most versatile digital maps applications that provides a varied range of use cases, such as finding routes to specific destinations, exploring new restaurants, cafes, museums, or other places, getting real-time traffic updates and notifications, sharing real-time location and geolocation with friends and families, finding business listings and reviews, and much more.

And once such an application or use case of Google Maps is navigation or finding directions for travel. While this is one of the most basic and direct uses of Google Maps, many users still struggle with it, especially when new to the application.

In this article, we will see how you can find your direction of travel using the widely used navigational tool that is Google Maps so that you reach your destination on time and eliminate the hassle or panic of getting lost in an unknown area or place.

But first, let us quickly look at the top benefits of Google Maps for your needs.

Here are a few quick benefits of Google Maps that make it one of the most popular and widely used navigational applications for users all over the world.

With that, let us look at the different ways you can find your travel direction using the Google Maps features.

You can find your travel directions in multiple ways using the features that Google Maps provides. Here are some of the most common ways to find your direction of travel using Google Maps:

Here’s how you can use the navigation mode feature from Google Maps to find your direction of travel:

Step 1. Open the Google Maps application on your Android or iOS device and ensure to enable the internet connection and your phone’s location services.

On top of your mobile phone screen, search and enter your desired destination by typing in the particular landmark, address, or business name.

Step 2. Next, click on the “Directions” button and choose your specific modes of transportation, such as walking, driving, cycling, or public transit.

Step 3. Then, click on the “Start” button to start your route navigation to your destination. Once you click on “Start“, Google Maps will calculate your route, including the distance in m.kms and the time you will require to reach your destination.

Step 4. Google Maps will direct you to your route with turn-by-turn directions, modifying the remaining distance and time in real time. As you start following the route Google Maps suggested, a blue arrow will appear on your mobile phone that represents your current location and the direction you are headed towards.

Step 5. Keep following the route that Google Maps suggests, and the application will also provide you with an estimated arrival time based on your current speed and remaining distance. Once you arrive close to your destination, Google Maps will notify you accordingly or guide you to the exact location if needed.

Step 6. Once you reach your end destination and no longer require Google Maps to navigate you further, click on the “End” button to exit or stop the navigation mode.

Thus, using the navigation mode is one of the simplest and easiest ways to find your direction of travel.

The Google Maps compass is a useful and highly beneficial tool that can help you find the right direction that you are facing and consists of a quality geographical map of the area you wish to navigate.

Finding your direction of travel using a compass is easy, thankfully, because of the magnetometer feature available in today’s modern-day iOS and Android mobile devices.

Here is how to use the compass feature on your mobile to find your direction of travel:

Thus, the compass mode is especially highly beneficial when you’re finding your way in an unfamiliar area and want to confirm the right direction you are heading with respect to the map. This significantly helps avoid any confusion and ensures you are headed in the right direction and aren’t lost.

You simply need to simply tap on the compass symbol again to exit the compass mode and reset to the default north-up orientation of Google Maps.

Using Google Maps on your smartphone or mobile device to find your direction of travel is extremely easy and useful. In fact, 67% of all smartphone users use Google Maps for navigational directions and finding routes to their destinations.

The entire process of using Google Maps to find the direction of travel is the same for both iOS and Android devices. In this article, we saw two ways you can find your direction of travel with Google Maps, one with the navigation mode and the other via the compass mode.

We hope you found this article useful and that you will use both ways to find your direction of travel the next time you are on a long trip or visiting a new place for the first time to reach your destination faster and easier with Google Maps.