But why? I LOVED that featu- oh wait! Right
But isn’t that feature a crucial component of people adding 360° pictures to google maps?
Maybe the Pixel team didn’t talk to the Maps team. Maybe they did and the maps team said they didn’t care. Maybe everyone involved in all of these features has since left the company. With Google, who knows?
They also notably ended their dedicated Street View app: https://9to5google.com/2022/11/01/google-street-view-app-shutting-down/.
Whoa I had no idea this happened. I used to be a part of a group that would go in and add street view for places like public transit stations so people could gauge accessibility. It’s such a shame that Google killed that ability…
You should refocus your efforts to OpenStreetMap and it’s associated entities. Don’t give Google free data they will later take away or charge you for
Stupid Google, this was a great camera feature. I use it all the time.
Don’t forget guys, Google My Maps is kept alive by one single Google employee. When he leaves the company, they’ll kill the feature for sure.
It wouldn’t surprise me if there was one single engineer that kept Photo Spheres alive.
Don’t forget guys, Google My Maps is kept alive by one single Google employee. When he leaves the company, they’ll kill the feature for sure.
Source?
I can’t find the name, but he used to reply to people on the support forum. I can’t even find the support forum now… They also killed the Android app in 2021.
I just tried the photo sphere mode again for old times’ sake. It sure hasn’t gotten any better. Maybe they’re removing it so they can make and release a better version, but I won’t hold my breath.
I mean, maybe, but hear me out: what if - crazy idea right here - they finish a fucking project before killing off the old one? Or, even wilder, maybe they improve the existing project? I’m about to blow this ceos mind with these radical ideas.
Maybe not do things like…
- Gmail to Inbox to Gmail;
- GPlay Music to YT music;
- Reader to;
- Hangouts to Messenger to Alo to Messages to Chat (or whatever the fuck it’s called now) to Messages (but with RCS so it’s okay we improved it we swear) ;
Google is like an adhd teen with no adult supervision or medication. It just decides that project x isn’t fun anymore and abandons it, but y will totally be better except it never is because y gets abandoned too because ooooh shiny.
I’m not angry at all, noooooo. It’s not like most of the projects I used have been axed and replaced (or not) with shittier alternatives. I absolutely love moving friends and family to systems for a few months just to hear about ‘why doesn’t x work anymore’ and ‘you said x would be around for a while’. Fuck you, Google.
/rant
Trust me, I still haven’t gotten over the untimely deaths of Inbox or Play Music, and my comment history will show me raging about Google’s inability to have a coherent messaging strategy. (By the way, you forgot the original Google Chat which was killed off before Hangouts!)
It’s the same story every time. An app/service with excellent potential, left to stagnate for years, retired. It’s at the point I don’t bother trying anything new Google puts out because I can’t trust that I won’t be rugpulled again.
Edit: my mistake, it was called Google Talk, which was renamed to Gmail Chat, which was killed off in favor of Hangouts.
Well, it does the job, doesn’t it? I love this picture mode and would like to see it in more camera apps, now Google kills it too.
WHY? It’s one of the reasons why I like Pixel cameras?!
