Of all the features Google has killed, I will miss this one the most

As I opened Google Maps today and went to check my Timeline, I got the dreaded notification that my Timeline is going away — at least in its current server-hosted form. Instead, Google is switching to a phone-centric Timeline where your whereabouts are saved on your Android phone, not on a black box somewhere in Google’s server farm, for privacy reasons.

While I completely understand and agree with the benefits of exercising more privacy, especially when it comes to my personal location (which could reveal my home address, darkest habits, secrets detrimental to my personal or professional life, or even tidbits for my health insurance that I don’t want to reveal), I still can’t help but mourn the loss of Timeline as we knew it. It has been a simple, useful at times, delightful at others, Google feature, and I will miss it a lot.

How I use my personal Maps Timeline

Although I didn’t use my Google Maps Timeline multiple times a day, I was still glad it ran in the background and saved my movements all the time, so I could always turn to it and consult it when I had a question.

“Remember that yogurt place outside of Bhaktapur that the driver stopped by on the way back to Kathmandu?” Or maybe, “what’s the name of that bridge I drove across on my way from Athens to Missolonghi?” Google Maps’ Timeline has those answers that I’ve long ago forgotten. It’s a bit like an organized version of my visual memory. If I can vaguely place a memory, Timeline helps me find exactly where and when it occurred, and it’s especially handy if I never took any photo in that place. Otherwise, yes, it’s easier to just check Google Photos instead.

But it’s not just about distant memories and places. I’ve turned to my Timeline to remember things as recent as a few days ago, especially when I notice charges on my bank card from a place whose name I don’t remember. “Where was I last Wednesday, and why is there a €15 expense then? What did I get?” You’d think either my husband or I would be able to remember these, but our memory is bad enough these days that it’s just easier to check our Timeline and let it remind us of where we’ve been and what we’ve done. “Oh, it’s the coffee shop we stopped by on our way to the park!” Mystery solved.

And for someone like me, who loves exploring new cities and towns, visiting places, and checking out parks and museums, Timeline provided the oh-so-satisfying visual organization of my trips that I craved. All the countries I’ve been to, cities, and places are perfectly organized and easy to browse by type, date, or map. I loved this!

Gone, but not completely forgotten

If you act fast like I did and check your Google Maps app now (tap your avatar on the top right and select Timeline), you will probably have the option to save your current timeline by migrating it all to your phone. So, instead of all those years of data going away, you can keep them locked in to check up on them when needed.

You should also get the option to choose whether you want your location data to be deleted every three months or if you want to keep it forever on your phone.

And finally, Google Maps will offer to let you back up your timeline, in an encrypted form, to your Google Drive account, so you can restore it if you reset your phone or move to another one.

All in all, I think Google has taken the right steps to mitigate the loss and provide as equal of an experience as it could without openly saving the data along with our accounts and personal identifiers. But, personally, I’ll still be weary of this change. I’ve already set my timeline to save my location indefinitely twice, and I still come back to see it has switched back to deleting every three months. Let’s hope the third time’s the charm. I’ve also seen reports of people claiming they’ve lost their entire timeline even though they asked for it to be saved to their phones.

Even if those were temporary bugs, there’s still the fringe case of me using multiple phones and having to switch between them across any given day or week. Right now, my Timeline is saved to my Pixel 9 Pro XL and I don’t know if I’ll have the patience to back up and restore my timeline each time I pick up a new phone for the day, which means I’ll be saving small strings of my timeline across multiple devices and inevitably losing the data from those secondary phones.

So, farewell, Timeline. Like most useful and unsung Google features, you were minor and hidden, but you helped me when I needed you and delighted me with your simplicity and efficacy!