Google is trying to make vacations more enjoyable and easier to plan.
Last year, it introduced an app called Trips to help people make travel plans, browse for a list of things to do, or look for places to see once they get to their destination. Now, Google has added more features to make it extra useful.
Backpackers, flashpackers, or whatever kind of traveler you are, you might want to give Trips a try, if you haven't yet. Here are the features Trips can offer to make traveling more fun.
Google Trips: Share Your Itinerary
The more the merrier indeed. First off, Google is making it easier for people to share their travel plans or itineraries with others.
One of the app's most important features is its ability to collate all reservations in one place, making them easier to access so users wouldn't have to dig up every hotel, flight, and travel reservations. But now, users can also share them with friends directly through the app. No need to go to your inbox and forward a pesky number of emails.
The people who'll receive your travel plans will see everything you have stacked up, so you better hope they'd want to join you in your next adventure.
Google Trips: Add Last-Minute Changes Manually
Next, Google knows travel plans can sometimes go bust. So for last-minute change of plans, Trips now has a feature to let users manually update and add new details for flight, hotel, car, or restaurant reservations. Flight canceled? Restaurant reservation went bust for some reason? No worries. Just touch the "+" button in the app's reservations section and input the necessary changes. Problem solved.
Google Trips: Bus And Train Reservations
Google is also making it easier for users to collate their bus or train tickets inside the app. These reservations will now be organized neatly alongside all other types of reservations — hotel, flight, restaurant — so you can stay on top of your traveling game.
Google Trips: Offline Access
All of the information you can store in the Trips app can be downloaded and viewed offline, because any rational traveler knows that there isn't Wi-Fi everywhere, especially if you're moving from place to place. With offline access, users can check hours and locations for sights to see, review saved places, and more.
Google says that on average, nearly a quarter of Trips users are offline for over seven hours at a time, and about 70 percent use offline mode to download trips pre-travel.
Trips is Google's way of becoming in-line with rival travel apps, although it still has ways to go before it could become the de facto virtual travel buddy. But thanks to Google's treasure trove of location data, it already boasts a stellar library of attractions, landmarks, and museums almost anywhere in the world, and it can even customize these things based on your interests.
Trips is available as a free download for iOS and Android.
Thoughts about Google's new updated Trips app? Does it help you plan travels easier? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
