How Often Does Google Street View Update?

Google Maps and Google Street View have changed how we explore our world. The ability to view almost anywhere at street level helps to explore other areas around the world and find a location visually to help you better locate it during a trip. But how often does Google Street View update? Is the picture you’re seeing on your screen current, or is it ancient history?

Google Street View was launched in 2007 and began with San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami, and New York City. As the program expanded, more US locations got added. Then in 2008, Google Street View went international, exploring larger cities in France, Italy, Japan, and Australia.

Since that time, Google’s Street View has gone even further and now includes most countries and most towns and cities within those countries. It’s a huge undertaking but one that benefits us all.

Street View images get obtained using various equipment aside from cars, including everything from cool-looking three-wheelers and snowmobiles to trekkers (backpacks) and trolleys.

How Often Does Street View Update?

We’ll get into more details below, but for this article, let’s dive right into your question.

Google Street View has no exact update schedule. If you’re in a city or highly-populated area, you’ll see an updated view rather quickly compared to more rural areas. At the time of writing, it seems that Google focuses on getting new images online rather than updating older ones.

Unfortunately, Google doesn’t keep an exact schedule for every street worldwide. But there are other Google tools you can use to decipher how current the latest Street View is.

Because of the nature of Google Maps, it tends to update much more often than Google’s Street View. If you’re unsure of a Street View image you’re seeing, check Google Maps directions. For example, if you see a “No Turn on Red” sign in the view, Google Maps will navigate your route accordingly.

If you’re wondering whether a business is still open or not, Google’s Search Engine will give you that information too! Search for the place on Google, then check the hours of operation. Google is 99.9% accurate when it tells you that a business is permanently closed. As for hours of operation, that’s a hit or miss since it can change many times without the owner updating it.

If you’re using Google Street View to find out if a friend still lives in the same house, you’re likely out of luck. If that’s the information you’re looking to gather, you’re more apt to get the results you want by looking at the county’s local tax records than using Google Street View.

Despite the lack of an exact time frame, there are still ways to see where Google is going next!

Google Street View Data Gathering

Google Street View now uses two forms of updates to keep current. It still uses the camera cars that drive up and down our streets, capturing everything in their unique 360-degree cameras. According to a global schedule, these cars travel assigned routes in locations across the world.

This page on the Google website shows you the Google Street View Calendar, providing when and where the Google Street View Car and trekkers plan to be at any given time. Scroll down the page to the “Where we’re headed” section, and you can see the published schedule.

The other source of Google Street View imagery is from users. Google introduced this feature in 2017 to allow contributors to add their images to the Google Street View database for possible inclusion into the map.

Google Street View Updates

As you can imagine, there is a lot of work behind the scenes to take the imagery from the cars and contributors, blur out faces and license plates, and prepare them for use on Google Street View. It takes quite a while, from the moment the images get captured to seeing them on the map.

There may be a schedule for taking new images, but there is no schedule for updating them on the web. You can tell when Google Street View was last updated in the bottom right corner. You should see a small box saying when it updated, such as “Image capture: May 2018.”

Google says they prioritize areas with no Google Street View imagery over updating those with an existing presence. They put more resources into adding to the project than updating, which makes sense. If you check the Street View car schedule, you will see that the car still retraces its steps, so not all vehicles are sent out to new places. Some, at least, are updating existing images.

Fortunately, Google Maps does show you the month and year of the image you’re looking at when you click on the Street View option.

Can You Request a Google Street View Update?

People often ask Google to revisit their town or street because it has been renovated, improved, developed, or changed or because they didn’t like the picture the car took. Unfortunately, you can’t request a new image or update on Street View. The vehicle has a schedule, and it sticks to that schedule.

However, you can send a report to Google if something is seriously wrong with your Google Street View. Click on “Report a Problem” and submit the information.

Use the link to submit an issue to Google for review. Of course, you can always upload pictures of places you’ve traveled to using Google Maps. Provide images, feedback, and even rate businesses using the Google Contribution feature within Google Maps by clicking the three horizontal line menu bar and clicking on “Contribute.”

Google Street View FAQs

Can I request an update on Google Earth?

Yes actually! While you can’t request an update on Street View, you can do it on Google Earth. Visit the “Google Earth website” and click on the “location” of the map you want to get updated. Click “Feedback” from the menu (the three horizontal lines in the upper left-hand corner) and fill out the form. Be sure to include the text “I would like to recommend an imagery refresh” before submitting your feedback.

Can I view past images on Street View?

Some locations do give you the option to see previous images. You’ll need to access Street View from Google Maps. In the upper left-hand corner, you’ll see a small box with the photographer’s name and a portion of the address. You will see a small clock. Click the clock, and you’ll see a slider. Move the slider back (to the left) to see older images.