Announcing the launch of abstract basemap mode in Unrestricted Experimental for 3D Maps. This Experimental mode is now available for testing in the Maps JavaScript API and Maps 3D SDK for iOS, with support in Maps 3D SDK for Android coming soon.

The abstract basemap in 3D Maps provides tangible value across our ecosystem by bridging the gap between utility and experience:

• End-to-end location discovery: Enables users to glide from a broad, data-rich city view down to a photorealistic neighborhood vibe within a single, uninterrupted interface.

• Empowered user choice: Empowers end users to choose the best context—clarity of the abstract basemap for orientation or high-fidelity photorealism for the vibe and real world validation.

• Reduced development friction: Eliminates the need for makers to call and configure separate APIs/SDKs for different map projections, simplifying workflow and ensuring cross-platform consistency. This unified canvas also unlocks new Experimental products like the Maps Agentic UI Kit to easily render contextually relevant map views for conversational AI makers.

Learn more in our documentation for Maps JavaScript and iOS.

You’re invited! Join Developer Experience engineers Ryan Baumann and Teresa Qin for a special fireside chat on May 15th, 2026. Tune in at 10AM PDT or 6:30PM IST on Discord.

Ryan and Teresa will provide an insightful and engaging discussion on grounding your agentic solutions with accurate real world data from Google Maps Platform. Stay tuned to the end for a demo of a real-world application of Google Maps Grounding.

Huge thanks to those of you who joined our Discord channel and submitted your questions. Tune into the session to see if your question was selected!

📅 Tune in on Discord on May 15 at 10AM PST or 6:30PM IST.

At Cloud Next, we announced new and expanded capabilities to help you build differentiated AI experiences. To move beyond simple chat, AI agents require two foundational layers: a grounding "truth layer" to anchor their reasoning in the physical world, and a visual interface to communicate that information through an intuitive, interactive experience. 

• Maps Grounding Lite is a portable and powerful way to bring the power of Google Maps to LLMs via the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

• Grounding with Google Maps, which launched last September, now extends beyond location data to include routing capabilities in Private Preview.

• Maps Agentic UI Toolkit serves as the dedicated geospatial visualization intelligence layer that gives your AI agents a “visual voice.” To enable these experiences, we have provided developers with declarative A2UI components and a comprehensive set of system instructions. 

• Maps Imagery Grounding, now available globally in Private Preview, starting with U.S. locations from Street View allows you to ground generative media in physical reality.

We are excited to announce the following new features to the 3D Maps on Maps JavaScript API:

• Create markers with HTML: Overhaul the marker experience by using HTML and CSS to match brand guidelines and integrate dynamic data, such as real-time status updates or hotel/property pricing, into animated and interactive UI elements.

• New camera perspectives: Anchor the 3D Maps camera to precise coordinates for first-person perspectives and accurate real-world asset simulations and fly overs. Adjustable field-of-view camera settings also unlock new panoramic scenes and more cinematic, stylized perspectives (e.g. fish-eye views).

• Mesh flattering:  Flatten 3D buildings and terrain to easily augment the 3D Maps canvas with 3D models or polygons, specifically for architecture and real estate planning.

• Scalable camera controls: New programmatic camera altitude mode automates the view height setting across diverse locations, eliminating the need to source elevation data and streamlining development of large-scale or generative map outputs (e.g. for AI Kit map components).

The Places API (New) now has the “Future Opening Business” allowing you to: 

• Opt-in to receive future-opening predictions via a new include_future_opening_businesses request parameter in AutocompletePlaces, SearchText, and NearbySearch methods.

• Always returning the accurate FUTURE_OPENING business status and anticipated openingDate in the GetPlace response. This delivers a seamless, powerful experience that eliminates the prior limitation that prevented customers, such as hotel booking services like Marriott, from enabling users to find upcoming locations before their official opening.

Announcing the launch of Places UI Kit in Maps Embed. This launch replaces the legacy getEntityDetails place card with the new PlaceDetailsElement and  utilizes existing Places UI Kit components to provide developers and end-users with a modern, consistently updated user experience.