Just under a year ago, Google announced that Maps Location History would be moving to your phone, and this Timeline change is more widely rolling out.
As of today, opening Google Maps for Android or iOS, tapping your profile menu in the top-right corner, and selecting “Your Timeline” results in the following prompt: “New! Your Timeline is now created on your device.”
Google explains how “your visits and routes are automatically saved to a map on each of your devices” (emphasis ours).
Google Maps is switching to a local, on-device approach after previously storing that data in the cloud to improve user privacy (the company will no longer be able to respond to geofence warrants).
Your Timeline, which was previously called “Location History,” is now phone-specific and multiple devices cannot contribute to it, with the web version no longer available. However, you will get a backup and device transfer system.
This is more widely rolling out today for those that haven’t already received this message in recent months. Google has been rolling out this change throughout the year. From this notice, you will have six months until the deletion.
People receiving this notice today have until June 9 to follow the new set-up process. Google also asks users whether they want to enable auto-delete and whether Timeline data should be used for Google Opinion Rewards surveys.
The actual “Saved visits and routes” data being moved to your device is a less than 2 MB download (in my case, after a decade’s worth of location data).
After this, close the Google Maps app and reopen Your Timeline to get the “Back up your Timeline” prompt, or tap the cloud icon in the top bar.
You can encrypt and upload a copy of your Timeline from this device to your Google Account, in case you lose your device or need to switch devices.
You can set up backup for all your devices.
More on Google Maps:
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.