Your Google Maps Timeline is now more private

One of the neat features of Google Maps is Timeline. This allows users to keep a record of all the places they’ve visited, which is pretty cool if you want to take a trip down memory lane or revisit certain locations. Now in an update to the feature, it appears that Google is removing Timeline from the web version of Google Maps.

According to the announcement on the support page, Google will be removing Timeline from the web interface. Instead, users who wish to continue accessing this feature will have to rely on the app on their smartphones. This data will also be kept on-device. Google says that this will give users more control over their data.

This means that instead of your Timeline history being stored in Google’s servers, it will be stored on your device. Users will now be fully in control of their location history. So if privacy is a concern of yours, then this should be an update to look forward to.

Google had previously given users the ability to store their Timeline data on-device. What this update is doing is “forcing” the switch. In an email sent to Android Police, Google says that users have until the 1st of December, 2024 to shift their data from the web to the app otherwise all saved data will be lost.