Location history is activated by default in our Google account. Thus, Google collects information about our movements and trips to show us better recommendations and personalized experiences. For users, it is an excellent function to remember the routes and places we visited.
In our Google Maps Timeline we can review all this, and even manage the location history. Whether we want to remove it or disable it completely , that’s how it’s done in the official Google Maps app for Android.
How to access your Maps Timeline
To quickly access our Google Maps Timeline, we just have to open the application and click on our profile picture. The account options will be displayed, among which we will see “Your chronology”, we touch there to access directly .
Now, we will be presented with a summary of the current day , with the routes and places visited. From here we can perform different actions with all this information.
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Manage the timeline: correct errors and add more information
Sometimes, and although the Google service is very intelligent, we find errors in a route or place that we visit . In the same way, Maps can show us incomplete information that we can complete.
When you select the particular day, you may see a route marked by a red question mark and the message “A visit is missing”. Tap on “Add visit” to complete the information , adding the place we visited. We can also modify the means of transport in case the information is not correct.
Add notes to identify the day
Google Maps and its Chronology allow us to add notes that help us to identify that day without consulting more information. For example, if we went hiking on the weekend, we can add a note on that day with the name “Hiking in the mountains”.
This gives infinite possibilities, since the user can write any message he needs . Thus, locating certain moments in our lives would be easier.
View the details of a site you’ve been to
In our Timeline, we will see the places we have visited . If you want to see more information about a particular place, tap on the three dots that appear to the right of each location and then on “View place details”.
We will see detailed information such as photos, the times you have been in that place as well as options to save, share, tag or edit it .
Delete or completely disable location history: improve your privacy
If we are concerned about our privacy and we do not want Google to follow us everywhere, we can always delete the history saved up to the present moment or deactivate it so that it does not continue collecting our information.
To carry out these actions we have four options :
- Delete a particular day– Tap the “More Options” button illustrated with three vertical dots at the top right of our Timeline’s main screen. Then click on “Delete day”.
- Delete all location history: to delete all data saved in Maps we will use the same route. More options > Settings and privacy. On the next screen, scroll until you see “Delete all location history.” Tap it to remove your entire timeline from Google’s servers.
- Delete a period of location history: in the same way and in the same place, we can choose to delete only part of our history. Thus we will only delete a certain period of time that we establish.
- Delete the history automatically: Google Maps gives us an option so that the Chronology is automatically deleted. Again, in the same options menu we will see the option “Delete location history automatically”, which will show us a new screen where we can establish that saved locations are deleted if they are older than 3, 18 or 36 months.
- Turn off location history: On the same “Personal Content” screen, Google links us to turn off location history. This option is accessed by tapping on “Location history is on”. Next we will choose our Google account and it will take us to the configuration. Tap on the “Deactivate” button, we slide to the bottom and tap on “Pause”.
All this is what the Google Maps Chronology allows us. As we can see, it is useful to keep it activated, although for some users who want to preserve their privacy they do not see it as something positive. Be that as it may, we can modify it , add new information, or if we prefer, deactivate it completely.
