Everyone likes a warm greeting, especially when landing in a new city. It’s nice to receive a good welcome. Google seems to have thought of this and is reportedly working on adding custom greetings in Maps for users flying to new cities. As fancy as it sounds, the feature apparently aims to encourage users to try the app’s Ask Maps feature.
Google Maps’ custom airport-arrival greetings are designed to promote Ask Maps
Folks at Android Authority have found evidence that suggests Google is working on new airport-arrival greetings. Google Maps for Android version 26.45.00.1011720968 contains strings hinting at the feature. The string “<string name=”AIRPORT_ARRIVAL_NOTIFICATION_TITLE”>Welcome to %1$s</string>,” explains the nature of the greeting. The “%1$s” here seems to be a placeholder for the city name.
The string “<string name=”AIRPORT_ARRIVAL_NOTIFICATION_BODY”> “Ask Maps to help you get into town, find a great first meal, and discover what’s happening tonight.” </string>” suggests the message seems designed to draw your attention to Ask Maps, encouraging you to try the feature when exploring the city.
There are references to over 90 individual airports
The report also spotted a pre-formatted Ask Maps prompt, “I just landed in %1$s! Help me get into town, recommend a great spot for my first meal, and tell me about what’s happening tonight.” This makes it even easier for users to try the feature. The feature appears to be largely location-based, with a new “AirportGeofenceSyncWorker” component working in the background to detect when you arrive in a city by plane.
Ask Maps can already access Gemini Personal Intelligence if you have it enabled. This could allow it to gather more details about your travel plans by accessing your email and calendar entries. The report also mentions they’ve found references to over 90 individual airports (list in image below) in the code. Since the feature is still in the works, it’s unclear when it’ll roll out widely.
As a refresher, Google introduced the Ask Maps feature in March this year. If you haven’t tried it yet, the upcoming feature seems designed to encourage you to give it a try.
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