Google wants your food photos. According to a report on Android Police, the internet giant is testing out a feature that will allow you to upload your foodporn to Google Maps.
The feature will reportedly detect when photos are taken at restaurants and other places where food is served and offer to attach them to the establishment’s location.
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Right now the feature is only available to “Level 3” and above Local Guides — meaning people who’ve contributed more than 50 reviews as part of the Local Guides programme.
The feature appears to borrow extensively from an experimental food photography service called Tablescape which Google shelved a few months back. Tablescape was meant to be a funnel for uploading photographs to Google+ using special “foodie” tags such as “vegetarian”, “cheesy”, and “natural”.
Read more: #Dinnercam: this mini studio will turn your Instagrams into serious food porn
It wasn’t long before the service was shut, although Google did hint that it would use aspects of it in the future:
This doesn’t mean we’re giving up on food photography, you may see the influence of Tablescape in future apps.
Google also sent out an email with a link in it pointing to a support page. According to the page, notifications will appear after you’ve “taken a photo in public places that Google thinks are interesting to other people, like restaurants and bars”. To get these notifications, you need Location History turned on.
The internet giant also provides the following guidelines for taking these kinds of photos:
- Be in focus and not blurry
- Show what most people experience, like the food or the ambience.
- Not be a selfie or a group photo
It’s an interesting idea, and if nothing else will give users a slightly more realistic idea of what a restaurant’s food actually looks like.
