Most of my location searches in Google Search or Gemini start with me typing a street name I only half remember and hoping it figures out what I mean.
It often gets close, but I usually have to reword my prompts.
Gemini's new Map tool, which started showing up for users around Oct. 2, cuts down on much of my guesswork. Instead of describing a place, I point at it on a map and ask my question.
I've been testing it for a few days, and it's changed how I look up places.
How the Gemini Map tool works
You have to first dig it out of the plus menu
Open the app and tap the button on the left side of the chat box. A pop-up box appears with a row of tools.
Scroll sideways to the end and tap the option. It opens a live Google Maps view with a circle around your current location.
You can drag the map, pinch to zoom, tap the search icon to find a specific place, and jump back to your location.
It only covers a few blocks when zoomed in. However, you can zoom out to cover an entire neighborhood or a small state. When you're happy with the location, tap Explore thisat the bottom of the page, and Gemini adds a to your prompt.
The Map tool is only available on the Android and iPhone apps. It's not on the web or the desktop apps.
The circle actually controls what Gemini finds
Most of the time, at least
I started my tests in a popular place: Park Slope, Brooklyn.
I wanted to see how useful the circle is, whether Gemini totally excludes everything outside it.
I asked it to find good coffee places within walking distance, and it returned several options inside the circle, each with ratings, price ranges, and opening hours.
Then I asked it to list the same spots from closest to farthest with walking times. It did, with distances measured from the center of my circle.
For example, Café Martin and Poetica Coffee were both about 3 minutes away, Postmark Café was about 4 minutes away, and Casita of Brooklyn was about 8 minutes away. I verified their addresses, and the times were approximately correct.
All surfaced results were within the highlighted area, except in specific situations.
While the Map tool mostly stayed within the highlighted area, one exception occurred during my tests. In a less-mapped area with few cafés, it admitted the options were limited and suggested the closest café outside the circle.
I also tried asking the same question without the map. I typed a landmark name, and Gemini found fewer places.
Typing an exact intersection worked better. But that only helps when you know the street names. With the tool, I move the circle to the part of the map I care about, and it gives me results.
It connects to Google Maps
The results go beyond a simple text list
Each suggestion appears as a card with photos, a rating score, a price range, and whether it's open and when it closes.
Tapping a card brings up review snippets and an option to open the location in Google Maps. This isn't new to the Map tool, as Gemini has shown results this way since the Dec. 2025 update.
The most useful part is the map preview at the top of every answer. Tapping it shows every suggested place as a pin, with an Export to Google Maps button at the bottom to save them to Google Maps as a custom list.
This is a nifty shortcut if you usually save places one at a time.
You can also ask follow-up questions, and Gemini keeps everything in context (for a while). I asked which Park Slope cafés were good for working on a laptop, and Gemini narrowed the list down with explanations from reviews.
It still has a few rough edges
Double-check the results before you head out
In areas with less map data, Gemini was much weaker in my experience.
When I asked for coffee places in a less popular area, it admitted coffee shops were limited. But it then padded the list with a pizza place and a shawarma spot because places like that "frequently serve hot beverages."
The only actual café it found was about a mile away, which it described as within walking distance. My follow-up question about gyms got an even worse response. Its top pick was a laundry.
Long chats caused a different problem. After several follow-up messages, Gemini said it no longer had the exact location of my circle and asked for a street name. I fixed it by starting a new chat and reattaching the Map Area chip.
Gemini's Map tool makes it easy to explore new places
The Map tool removes the hardest part of asking Gemini about a place you don't know: describing where it is.
In a well-mapped neighborhood like Park Slope, it stayed inside my circle and gave me accurate walking times and distances. In places with less map data, I'd double-check its answers before going anywhere.
But it's definitely worth trying the next time you plan a trip or explore a new neighborhood.