Google Street View’s dedicated Android app is being shut down next year

All of my favorite Google apps are shutting down this year, and to be honest, that’s kind of a bummer. I know that the company is moving rapidly towards web applications, but they don’t always have feature parity with the Android version that disappears off of the face of the Earth.

The latest service on the chopping block is the standalone Street View app – it’s going away on March 21, 2023. Now, it’s a lot less useful than just using Street View in Google Maps thanks to the shutdown of Google Daydream, and you can no longer be transported to these locations in a VR headset, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t still useful.

In particular, I loved the Photo Paths and Photo Spheres you see above. They were collections of very specific locations that you’d be able to step into and view in 360 degrees as a virtual tourist, and they were awesome. The shutdown of the dedicated app was first spotted by 9to5Google in their latest APK Insights report of the app itself.

To continue publishing 360-degree video, you can switch to ‘Street View Studio’, and to add Photo Spheres, you can utilize Google Maps going forward. You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned an alternative means for using Photo Paths after the app goes away forever, and that’s because, well, there isn’t one, at least, not yet.

I only ever used the app to explore the world during the global pandemic using my Daydream headset, but I agree its usage is likely extremely low. I know that Google Expeditions also shut down and classrooms used both apps a ton. I just hope the company has more in store for educators and students in the near future.