Points of Interest in Google Maps are colored by category

Points of interest in Google Maps will have a different color per category from the coming weeks in order to distinguish them on the map. For example, GP posts, hospitals and other medical facilities turn red, shops turn blue.

The new color palette should make it clearer to users what kind of place it is, reports Google. The idea is to make the colors work wherever a map from Google can be seen. In addition to Google Maps, this is for example in search results, in Assistant and in Google Earth. In addition, it works in Android Auto, the car software of the American company.

In addition to the colors, Google also adjusts the poi to the way the user moves. With car navigation, the map mainly shows eateries and gas stations, with public transport it is more about bus stops and train stations.

The changes should become visible across all services in the coming weeks, the search giant says. At some point, that will also work in third-party services that use the Google Maps api. That won’t happen at first.