Google lets Android users and DSLR owners create their own Street Views

Google Street View
A whole new Street View, created by you

After the Google Street View teams canvased cities around the world, the Amazon rainforest, airports and train stations, it's finally taking a backseat and letting you take a crack at it.

Urban explorers now have a new tool in the Views community that will enable them to plan, shoot, and upload their own Street View journeys.

Google says the new tool will allow people to convey the feeling of walking through their favorite park or create virtual tours of their businesses. To get started all someone needs to do is create photo spheres with their Android phone or DSLR camera.

After sharing them on Views, users can use Google's new tool to connect them on a map like a constellation of stars. Once amateur Street Viewers are done fussing with the way it looks, others will be able to navigate to them on Google Maps.

Sans giant camera backpack

In the same blog post, the search company says it hopes this will be another avenue for users to share and see different types of Street View experiences.

"It also opens up a new tool for photographers to showcase diversity in a specific location - by times of day, weather conditions or cultural events - in a way that Street View currently doesn't cover," Evan Rapoport, Google's product manager of Google Maps and Photo Sphere, wrote.

This isn't the first time Google has tried to get average folks involved with its Street View ambitions.

Previously the search company loaned out a backpack version of its Street View car camera called the Trekker to capture remote locations on foot.

Google's latest tool seems to be an even easier way for anyone to jump in using just their Android smartphone or the DLSR they may have sitting around already. It's definitely a ploy to get more snappers to share their pictures on Street View, but in the long run it could help turn the feature into a more diverse, more beautiful creation.

Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee was a former computing reporter at TechRadar. Kevin is now the SEO Updates Editor at IGN based in New York. He handles all of the best of tech buying guides while also dipping his hand in the entertainment and games evergreen content. Kevin has over eight years of experience in the tech and games publications with previous bylines at Polygon, PC World, and more. Outside of work, Kevin is major movie buff of cult and bad films. He also regularly plays flight & space sim and racing games. IRL he's a fan of archery, axe throwing, and board games.