Google Maps’ Street View has been around for 15 years. To mark the occasion, the tech giant on Tuesday unveiled a new camera and announced it’s bringing historical Street View to Android and iOS.
Historical Street View allows you to view historic imagery from a location and see how a place has changed over time, dating back to 2007 when Street View first launched. The feature has been available on desktop since 2014, but you can now use it on iOS and Android devices.
To try out historical Street View, tap anywhere on an image, then tap See more dates. You can then scroll through a carousel of images showing the location at various points in the past.
Historical Street View can show how buildings and other landmarks have changed over time, like the Vessel in New York City.
GoogleAs for the newly announced camera system, Google says it’s roughly the size of a house cat and, weighing only 15 pounds, is designed to be “ultra-transportable” — while including all the power, resolution and processing capabilities of an entire Street View car. Though the new camera is still being piloted, Google expects to fully roll it out next year to help map and capture imagery from remote corners of the world, including the Amazon jungle.
Google’s new Street View camera is about the size of a house cat and weighs 15 pounds.
Google/Screenshot by CNET
