Despite being smaller and losing the icons (such as flags, hearts, and stars) when you zoom out, the pins will still keep their colors which will help the user quickly determine whether a pinned location is a zoo, a museum, a restaurant, a gas station, and more. Note that full pins won’t change their look if you zoom in only moderately.
At left, pins in the current version of Google Maps compared to the smaller icon-less pins being tested by Google in the beta version of the app (R). | Image credit-9to5Google
The new look pins are showing up in Google Maps beta version 25.06.x. Considering that the app reportedly has more than 2 billion active monthly users, Google does like to experiment with it to improve the experience of using the app. In this case, it improves the navigation end of the app not only making it easier to find out more info about a pinned location when zooming out on the screen but also by reducing the clutter that can make it a pain to use the app.
While it’s not clear when this new feature for Google Maps will be rolled out to all Android users, one thing you can be sure of is that more changes will be coming to the Google Maps app soon.
