Google Maps’ Immersive View is now available across five cities

Immersive View is now rolling out for Google Maps in five global cities after the feature was first introduced across hundreds of notable landmarks last year. It combines billions of Street View and aerial images, allowing users to scope out neighborhoods as if they’re flying overhead and then drop down to street level for a closer look at areas of interest. The experience essentially resembles Google Earth but with Street View’s freedom to explore in more detail.

Immersive View was first announced in May 2021 and expanded in September last year to cover 250 global landmarks, including Tokyo Tower and the Acropolis of Athens. Today, the feature is rolling out to cover London, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Tokyo, with the Indoor Live View feature expanding to 1000 airports, train stations, and shopping centers. Immersive View will be released in more cities in the coming months, including Amsterdam, Dublin, Florence, and Venice.

Immersive View can be used for things like planning trips to museums, parks, or activities, allowing users to virtually fly over buildings to locate entrances, check nearby traffic or parking, and view which areas tend to attract the largest crowds. There’s also a time slider that can be used to view a location at different times during the day and under predicted weather conditions. Users looking for nearby cafes or restaurants can take a look inside selective venues before they visit, with Immersive View transforming photographs with neural radiance fields (NeRF) — an advanced AI technique that generates a 3D rendered scene by mapping color and light from multiple still images from varying angles — to create explorable walkthroughs.

The new Immersive View is supported on “just about any phone and device” according to Google, though a list of supported devices has not been provided. We have reached out to Google for clarification and will update this story should the company respond.