Discover places and change your view

You can use Google Earth to travel the world and explore new places. You’ll find exotic cities, landmarks in 3D, and buildings up close. 

Learn how to experience places in Street View.

Tips:

Navigate in Google Earth

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Earth app Google Earth.
  2. Choose an action:
    • To find a specific place: Tap Search Search.
    • Move around: Use one finger to touch and drag the screen.
    • Zoom in and out: Pinch open to zoom in, pinch closed to zoom out. To zoom with one finger, double-tap and hold, then slide your finger up or down.
    • Fly to your current location: On the bottom right, tap My Location .

Turn on latitude & longitude gridlines  

You can turn on gridlines to learn about geographic coordinates and get your approximate location on the Earth’s surface.
  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Earth app Google Earth.
  2. On the left, tap Map Style Map Style.
  3. Turn Gridlines on or off.
Tip: Turn on gridlines to show the 5 major circles of latitude: The Equator, Arctic Circle, Antarctic Circle, Tropic of Cancer, and Tropic of Capricorn, as well as the Prime Meridian.

Show 3D imagery

To turn 3D buildings and trees on or off:

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Earth app Google Earth.
  2. Tap Map Style Map Style.
  3. Turn Enable 3D buildings on or off.
Tip: Turn off 3D buildings to possibly show newer imagery and increase the overall performance of Google Earth.

Change the view

  • Switch between top-down view and orbiting 3D view: Zoom in on the map. On the right side of the screen, tap 3D 3D. If you're already in 3D view, this icon will say 2D instead.
  • Face North: At the bottom, tap the compass.
  • Tilt the map: With 2 fingers, touch and hold the map, then move your fingers up and down the screen.
  • Rotate the map: With 2 fingers, touch and hold the map, then move your fingers around each other on the screen.

Choose your map style

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Earth app Google Earth.
  2. In the top left, tap Menu Menu.
  3. Tap Map Style Map Style.
  4. Choose a view:
    • Clean: Imagery only -- no borders, labels or roads.
    • Exploration: Imagery plus most places of interest, like borders, labels, and roads.
    • Everything: All of the above plus landmarks, businesses, public transit, and more.

Troubleshoot places that load slowly

Sometimes, places take time to show in Google Earth. To experience Earth images on your device more quickly, you may need to change your image quality settings.

  1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Earth app Google Earth.
  2. Tap Menu Menu and then Settings Settings and then Rendering Quality.
  3. Choose a setting:
    • To increase the loading speed, choose a faster setting.
    • To improve the clarity, choose a higher setting.
Tip: While you wait for a place to load, check the bottom left to tell how much of the image already loaded.

Nearby places of interest

Mini-pins on the maps show nearby places of interest you may enjoy. The pins are listed in different categories, including:
Food and drink: 
Food Wine Bar or pub Cafe 
Retail:
Shopping Grocery
Outdoor attractions:
Camping Golf Zoo Park Mountain
Emergency services:
Pharmacy Medical aid Red Cross Red Crescent Red Shield of David 
City services:
Police School Restroom Post Office Library

To learn more about the mini-pins and what they represent, consult the full legend.

 
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