After a long absence, Google is bringing the compass widget back to Maps on Android. And don’t worry, this isn’t a cruel April Fool’s Day joke on the part of the company. In one support post spotted by Android Police, Google says it decided to bring back the compass because of the feature’s “overwhelming support”. For better and for worse, sometimes online communities have the power to move mountains – or, in this case, incredibly large corporations.
Once you’ve downloaded the latest version of Maps, 10.62, you’ll see the widget appear when you start navigating somewhere. When Google initially removed the compass in early 2019, it said it had done so to “clean up the navigation screen.” The irony of it all is that the company hasn’t done something similar on iOS. On the iPhone and iPad, the compass sat there all the time its Android counterpart missed in action.
