Google’s got a new update to Maps for Android out tonight, moving around how you access a couple features, as well as adding-in the ability to measure changes in elevation.

That elevation tool may not sound like the most useful feature in the world, at least if you’re primarily a car person. If you like to use Google Maps for planning routes or getting directions while you’re out on foot or riding a bicycle, elevation changes become a far greater concern than they’d be for someone securely tucked away inside a four wheel drive vehicle. While you’ve been able to use the terrain map overlay to get an idea of changes in elevation, that didn’t give you much beyond a general sense of shifts in height. In this update, the measurement tool in the app’s labs setting now reports the difference in height between two points you choose. It’s a little less convenient than a highly-detailed elevation overlay would be, but it’s an improvement, all the same.

The other changes also have to do with labs features, but don’t add anything new. Instead, the options to show and hide the zoom buttons and the map’s scale graduate from labs to full-fledged settings.

Source: Google

Via: Android Central