15 years of Google Street View: new feature lets you time travel

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Google Street View has produced a large number of beautiful images over the past 15 years. While the feature is great for seeing what an environment looks like, there are also countless collections of funny, remarkable, or strange Street View images to keep you entertained for an afternoon. With cameras on cars, Google has been traveling all over the world for years to capture streets, squares, cities and towns (as well as people). Now Google is going to test a new kind of camera to take new images. But there's also a new feature that lets you travel through time.

Google Street View 15 Years: Travel Back in Time

In the coming weeks, Google will roll out the new function, which allows you to time travel at a specific location, as it were. When activating the Street View feature at a location, you can tap the screen and view previous Street View images in the information card at the bottom. You will then see a previous version of Street View, for example from a few years ago. This provides an interesting insight into the development of the area, especially at locations where a lot has changed.

Depending on the location, the feature dates back to 2007, when Street View became available. The feature is rolling out globally starting today on both the iOS and Android versions of Google Maps. It may therefore take a while before the function is visible to you. If you don't see it yet, you can enjoy yourself with all kinds of bizarre moments that have been captured over the years.

The new camera that Google is going to test is a lot smaller and therefore more portable. The new camera will be tested next year and will allow Google to capture images in more places. These will mainly be places where cars can't reach. The camera weighs less than 7 kilos, is modular and can also be placed on any car.

To celebrate 15 years of Street View, according to Google you will soon be able to choose a special icon during normal navigation in Google Maps. During car navigation, tap your current location and choose the special Street View car. At the time of writing, this function is not yet visible with us.

For a number of years, Apple has also had its own version of Street View called Look Around. This feature is being rolled out in more and more countries and is in any case available in locations where Apple has collected its own map material. In the Netherlands and Belgium that is not yet the case, but in 2021 Apple has frequently driven through the country with cameras to capture images.