Google Maps will get extensive updates this year (Update: Rolling out to everyone!)

Update 6/26/2018: Google announced that the redesigned Google Maps is rolling out worldwide today. Because this is a server-side switch, do not fret if you do not see the new design right away.

Google calls out the redesigned Explore tab, trending lists, “Your Match,” and the new “For You” tab. Content in the For You tab will ramp up this week. You can read all about the new features in the original article below.

Update 6/11/2018 at 11:01 A.M. EST: The features laid out in the article below appear to be rolling out to a small selection of users. Android Police got a tip from a reader that a server-side update of Google Maps gave him most of the design and feature upgrades announced at Google I/O 2018. However, he’s still missing the new For You section.

This server-side upgrade likely means that a wide rollout of the new Google Maps will come in a short time.

Original Article: Google is updating Maps with a couple of new features that it hopes will encourage users to get out of the house and try new things.

The first is an entirely new tab within the Google Maps app called For You. Here, users will be shown recommendations of places and businesses in their area, especially those that are brand new or are “trending” based on Google’s data.

Google revealed For You at its I/O 2018 developer conference with an example that showed a recommendation for a new cafe alongside reviews and a news link related to the cafe’s opening.

If Google’s first choice doesn’t strike your fancy, there’s also a “Trending this week” column which presents other trending restaurants in the area.

While the new tab in itself is a nice new feature if you’re out of ideas for what to do one evening, Google has gone a step further and applied its machine learning smarts with a complimentary feature called “Your Match.”

Your Match gives users a percentage rating against For You recommendations based on their own personal data and what Google knows about the locations in your area. In the example at I/O, Google showed a high Your Match score for a new Greek restaurant based on the user’s interest in healthy food and their previous visits to other restaurants serving up the same type of cuisine.

It seems likely that Your Match will make its way into Maps’ wider functionality. We’ll find out for sure when both of the new features roll out globally to Android (and iOS) devices, which Google says will happen in the coming months.

You can read more about how the personalized recommendations work on the Google Maps official blog here.

NEXT: You can now search for reviews right in the Android Google Maps app