Google Indoor Maps: If you've ever lost your Android phone, you may have used Google's "Find My Device" service to see the phone's last location on a map.
Find My Device is improving as Google Maps is improving with the latest mapping technology. But with the latest update , Google added indoor mapping support to Find My Device.
Google Maps already has areas very well mapped, so indoor mapping seems to be the company's next big goal.
For indoor mapping, one would have to upload a floor plan to Google Maps and then create some kind of indoor positioning system. Google's outdoor maps use satellite imagery and photos from Street View cars.
However, these techniques cannot be used for indoor mapping. Mapping an interior space requires each building owner to provide data to the company.
Nowadays, there are indoor maps mainly for airports, shopping malls, stadiums and other large businesses (an example). So if you lose your device somewhere there, and the indoor location system is working, you will now be able to locate the exact location of the device with the Find My Device service.
This might work in your home one day. Google added support for 802.11mc, or Wi-Fi Round Trip Time (RTT), in Android 9 Pie, which allows Android devices to natively support precise indoor location and navigation.
However, you will need a router that is compatible with Wi-Fi RTT, which is currently not available on the market. However, Google has promised that we will see Wi-Fi RTT support in Google Wifi (Mesh Wi-Fi Router) before the end of 2018.
Currently, does anyone want to upload a map of their house to Google Maps?
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