Google Maps now has AI integration that allows users to do a whole lot more with the app than just navigate. The new capabilities include things like checking on hotel availability, comparing prices, and even placing food delivery orders.
On August 6, Google announced new capabilities, which build on the Gemini-powered Ask Maps experience it introduced earlier this year.
Ask Maps uses Gemini to understand your multi-step requests, search across Maps for the information it needs, and help you get things done.
For example, if you ask Maps to find a restaurant that serves Chicago-style pizza on your way home, it can search for options along your route, take your preferences into account, and add a pie to your cart. You still get to review and complete the order yourself.
Square and Toast are two of Google’s early partners rolling out the ordering feature, and the company says it’ll add support for Uber Eats soon.
Beyond ordering food, Maps can also search hotel prices in real time and respond to detailed requests, such as finding a highly rated hotel near restaurants and a gym within a certain price range.
If you’re looking for something to do on the weekend, Ask Maps can help you find outings like concerts and comedy shows, along with links to buy tickets.
Google describes Ask Maps as “Google Maps’ biggest transformation in over a decade.”
With all these new features, the biggest change is that Maps is going beyond helping you find what you need and starting to help you do something with the results.
Google Maps Is Moving From Search to Action
Most of us are used to using Google Maps to help us decide where to eat, stay, shop, or just spend our time. Until now, once we made that decision, we usually had to leave Maps to actually do something about it.
What makes Ask Maps different is that it handles many of those next steps, so we don’t have to start over somewhere else. That could change how we use the app.
After all, if Maps can help us find the restaurant and place the order, or locate a hotel based on our preferences and show real-time availability, there’s no real need to bounce between different apps.
As it brings agentic AI into Maps, Google has a big advantage: More than 2 billion people use Maps every month. That means the search giant won’t have to do the hard work of convincing consumers to adopt a new AI app. Almost everyone already has Google Maps on their phones.
And Google isn’t wasting any time building on its massive advantage. Earlier this year, it co-developed the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard designed to give AI agents a common way to interact with businesses, including filling carts and completing purchases. Ask Maps gives us an early look at how that could work in our daily lives.
Also in Consumer Tech News
Disney+ Brings TikTok Videos Into Its Streaming App
Disney and TikTok announced a deal on August 5 that will bring fan-created TikTok videos directly into Disney+. The companies plan to launch the program in the U.S. in the near future, before expanding into other markets.
Creators who choose to participate in the program will see their content appear in Verts, Disney+’s short-form vertical video feed. The videos will feature characters and stories from Disney brands and franchises, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and FX.
TikTok will also give creators access to assets from hundreds of Disney films and shows. Disney says the videos will be “refreshed regularly.”
The deal gives Disney another way to keep its subscribers scrolling even when they aren’t watching a full movie or TV episode. It also puts some of the fan content that drives entertainment conversations on social media into Disney+’s own app.
Reddit Wants New Users to Be Less Dependent on Karma
Karma is a huge part of the Reddit experience, but the company recognizes that it has also become a barrier to new users.
On August 5, Reddit announced it’s developing moderation tools that would eventually make karma and account age requirements less important when users post in a community for the first time.
Reddit says that stronger abuse-prevention systems could allow moderators to rely less on karma and account-age thresholds that were put in place to block spam, bots, and trolls.
While these restrictions can be effective, they can also stop legitimate new users from participating. Reddit is planning to make changes to how karma is used, but isn’t getting rid of it.
Testing of Rules Hub, which uses LLMs to determine whether a post or comment violates community rules, is also being expanded. More than 700 communities have already tested it, and newly created communities can now try the system before its wider rollout later this year.
Google Drive Will Stop Backing Up Photos to Google Photos on August 10
Starting on August 10, Google Drive for desktop will no longer support automatic backups to Google Photos.
According to Google Photos Help documentation, users who currently back up photos and videos through Drive for desktop will need to set up those folders again in Google Photos online. Otherwise, the backups will stop.
Users haven’t been able to add new Google Photos backup folders through Drive since June, but existing folders will continue to sync until the August deadline.
The change won’t shut down Google Photos or keep users from backing up photos stored on their computers. It just moves the backup process out of Drive for desktop and into Google Photos.
Select Amazon Shoppers May Receive Part of Its $600M Tariff Refund
Amazon received about $600 million in tariff refunds during the second quarter, CFO Brian Olsavsky said during the company’s Q2 earnings call. Some, but not all of that will be passed on to affected Amazon users.
The refunds were issued after the Supreme Court’s February decision, which struck down tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Amazon says only certain customers will receive direct refunds as a result of the ruling. According to Olsavsky, the company has identified some cases where import charges were passed on to Amazon shoppers. Once Amazon receives refunds for those charges, it’ll contact the affected customers and automatically return the money.
However, the company says that in “most” cases, Amazon itself absorbed the additional costs associated with the tariffs. In those cases, it will keep the money. Amazon also said that for most products sold on its platform, it isn’t the importer of record, so it hasn’t received a refund for those transactions.
Originally published by Techopedia on August 7, 2026, as part of the Techopedia Consumer Report series.