Night Mode Finally Descends On Google Maps For iOS

Ever since the whole Apple Maps fiasco almost three years ago, Google has had the opportunity to snatch that part of the mobile Apple experience. So far, it's been working and iPhone users are more or less satisfied. Except for one thing that mostly drivers have been clamoring for: night mode. The day, or night, has finally arrived when you will no longer be blinded by your iPhone's bright screen while driving down the highway. Night mode is finally here, perhaps giving users less reason to switch map apps.

Google just pushed out an update to Google Maps for iOS and, although it's not at the very top of the changelog, the new Night mode is most likely the one that will get talked about the most. The new feature is fully automatic, so you actually have no control over it. It only activates under two conditions. First, it has to be night time. Just using it in a dark place won't work. Second and equally important, it only works in turn-by-turn navigation mode and nowhere else.

Those two cases pretty much cover what night mode is for anyway. Then again, now that the feature is actually here, you can expect some to still not be satisfied and wish that Google would allow them to manually switch back and forth day and night modes. Until Google decides to cave in, these users will have to settle for inverting iOS colors as a workaround.

The update also brings in other new features to Google Maps. You can now put labels on places for easier identification. These labels also conveniently show up in search suggestions. You can also edit the captions on your posted photos. The update to Google Maps, now at version 4.9.0, should be rolling out to users by now.