Google Maps will show if your compass is uncalibrated on Android
The blue beam will guide you towards the right direction and warn about an uncalibrated compass.
Google has made it easier to know which way you are headed by replacing the direction arrow with a blue beam, that will be wider or more narrow depending on you phone's compass calibration status.
Google is committed to helping you deal with one of the oldest problems on a smartphone: an uncalibrated compass. Sometimes, after charging your phone or passing by a metal pole, your compass will be uncalibrated. In the past, if this occured, the direction arrow in Google maps did not show at all or changed position randomly. In a recent update, Google has addressed the problem by replacing the arrow with a blue beam.
That beam will be wider or more narrow depending on the calibration status of your compass. If it is working correctly, the beam will show a narrow beam of blue light guiding you in your direction. If the beam is overly wide, just move your phone in a figure 8 motion like shown down below. This should recalibrate the compass and make the beam narrow again. The Google Maps update has started to roll out to Android users everwhere.
Alexander Fagot - Managing Editor News - 9360 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2016
As a young tech enthusiast with a history involving assembling and overclocking projects, I ended up working as a projectionist with good old 35-mm films before I entered the computer world at a professional level. I assisted customers at an Austrian IT service provider called Iphos IT Solutions for seven years, working as a Windows client and server administrator as well as a project manager. As a freelancer who travels a lot, I have been able to write for Notebookcheck from all corners of the world since 2016. My articles cover brand-new mobile technologies in smartphones, laptops, and gadgets of all kinds.
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