How to Preview a Route in Google Maps Immersive View

Use the preview before you leave to understand the shape of the journey, pause at an unfamiliar junction, and look at the available time and weather views. You can still plan a useful trip when the preview is absent.

Set up the journey you want to preview

Immersive View for routes previews a journey before travel; Immersive Navigation is the separate driving-guidance experience.^{3 4} Our Immersive Navigation guide covers that driving display and its availability.

Immersive View for places explores a restaurant or landmark; the Directions workflow below previews a route.⁵

Start with the route you actually intend to take. Search for the destination in the Google Maps app and open Directions. Then check the starting point and travel mode before looking for the preview.

For driving-route choices, see the avoid ferries guide.

To plan from somewhere else, change Your location to the starting point you intend to use. For a driving, walking or cycling trip, select that mode, then check whether an Immersive preview is offered.^{5 1 2}

For example, a station-to-museum walk should begin at the station, even if you are planning it from your kitchen. Check the selected entrance or destination rather than assuming the first result is the place you meant.

Use the playback and time controls

Once the Immersive preview opens, decide whether you need the whole journey or one awkward section. These are the controls described in Google’s Android and iPhone/iPad directions help.^{1 2}

You do not need to watch the whole animation repeatedly. Pause at the part you find confusing, look at the surrounding layout, then return to the directions. Keep the preview’s selected time in mind when comparing two views.

Read the scene as a model

The scene is a 3D model assembled from imagery, not a live camera feed of the journey. The traffic shown in the model is simulated using historical, aggregated driving trends.³

That makes the preview useful for orientation: where a turn sits, how a route passes a building, or which section you want to inspect more closely. Likewise, an attractive-looking path is not confirmation of its present condition or suitability for your needs.

Google’s October 2024 update described parking and complex-turn details for Immersive View for routes where available.⁶ Use those details, when shown, to inspect the approach to your destination; confirm parking availability and local restrictions separately.

Treat the view as preparation. For a trip affected by rain, snow, flooding or closures, use the separate route-weather planning guide to check the journey at the times you expect to pass each section.

If no Immersive preview appears

An older launch-city list does not guarantee that a particular route will offer a preview today.^{3 1} For where Immersive View and Google’s other newer features are available, see Google Maps feature availability by country. Check the actual route rather than repeatedly changing unrelated display settings.

Google describes cloud rendering for Immersive View for routes.³ Check the preview while connected before a trip without coverage, and do not assume that an offline map download includes it. For an offline drive, prepare separately with our offline Maps guide.

Google also provides a list of directions and an ordinary turn-by-turn preview; those are separate from an available Immersive preview.^{1 2} A button labelled Preview alone does not tell you which experience you are seeing.

If you use Street View instead, check the photograph’s capture date before treating it as current. If Street View will not open at all, follow our Street View troubleshooting steps. Avoid resetting account data solely to chase a missing feature: the available route and its directions are the useful starting point.

Check the trip before leaving

Set depart or arrive time is a separate directions control for estimating a trip at a chosen time, and Google limits it to routes with one destination.^{1 2} Use that control when the question is the trip’s timing; use the Immersive preview when the question is what the route looks like.

For the station-to-museum example, inspect the unfamiliar junction in the preview if it is offered. Close it, review the walking directions, and check the trip again near departure. Keep any access or weather questions for the relevant current source.

Starting navigation requires your starting point to be your current location; a different starting point gives you a preview instead.^{1 2} Planning a remote journey and starting guidance for the journey you are about to make are different actions.

Follow actual road signs and traffic rules when travelling, even if the preview or directions suggest something different.^{1 2}