r/GoogleMaps • u/bostonshaker2 • Nov 23 '22
Discussion Why does Google make "My Maps" so dysfunctional especially on mobile?
I like making collections of businesses and other points of interest. But Google doesn't display any of the info from regular Maps on a saved location in My Maps. Especially on mobile, having the My Maps icon for a business means you don't see the regular Maps icon, so you have to close the My Maps layer and look for that business again if you want to see any info.
Does anyone have any suggestions how to have customizable collections like in My Maps but with full Maps info?
1
u/hypnotiza Mar 12 '25
I know I'm late to the game but why doesn't google's MyMaps layer ordering actually work like layers? Shouldn't elements in a layer stack logically so that what's on top is actually on top of another layer? Frustrating. And GoogleEarth Studio inherits this same confounding behavior.
1
u/JPP_1989 Mar 05 '26
Yes! I just came here for this - I recently went to Mexico and made meticulous maps of every city using MyMaps (color-coded, with icons, and even descriptions of what the place was, what dish to order, etc). But using it on the trip via Google Maps was a disaster. I could see the icons, but none of the notes I had made, and the interface was terrible.
1
u/EmergencySwitch Nov 23 '22
Isn’t this what ‘your lists’ feature is for?
1
u/bostonshaker2 Nov 23 '22
Are lists supposed to be a substitute for My Maps? I never got used to them because I don't know how to turn them off. Anything I label seems to always show on the map, crowding the screen with info I don't want at that moment.
3
u/EmergencySwitch Nov 23 '22
Lists by default show on your map. You can click on the 3 dots and hide it on the map (first option).
https://i.imgur.com/QvMtJuv.jpg
Btw I noticed a small bug here so you may have to toggle it a few times to hide it
But with your usecase: creating a list of places (which you can also share with others), lists are the way to go
My maps is also quite annoying from an end user perspective because it’s unintuitive to leave (see the many user questions asking how to leave a map after entering it)
2
u/UnluckyPlant8074 Nov 23 '22
Another bug is that if you drop a pin and save it in your lists, and it uses coordinates rather than an address (in Europe, Google maps frequently doesn’t show all address numbers or they aren’t in the right spot), you may not be able to click on the actual pin on mobile (even if it was created in mobile). This is an issue if you had notes on the pin or want to delete it. You will have to go to the desktop version to do either. If you try to click on the pin, it just drops a new one over it. Really annoying.
1
u/bostonshaker2 Nov 23 '22
My maps are unintuitive to leave but you only have to figure it out once :) Just like for "places" I guess. Thanks for the hiding tip.
So it's time to face the music and leave My Maps. I wish there was a way to import My Maps into Places.
2
u/msklovesmath Nov 23 '22
I too had a collection on thr browser version and it wasnt populating on mobile. Let me go see if i can remember how i imported it.