Navigating Without Leaving a Digital Trail
By default, Google Maps logs an incredible amount of data about your movements. Every time you search for a restaurant, request directions to a new office, or simply drive with the app open in the foreground, Google records that location and saves it to your account’s Location History. This data is used to personalise your experience, providing better restaurant recommendations and offering accurate commute times based on your daily habits.
However, there are many situations where you might not want a specific location permanently tied to your Google Account. If you are driving to a jewellery store to buy an engagement ring and share a computer with your partner, you do not want a targeted ad for diamonds to appear in their browser later that evening. If you are travelling to a sensitive medical appointment, you may prefer that the clinic does not appear in your timeline.
To solve this, Google introduced Incognito Mode for Maps. Just like Incognito Mode in Google Chrome, this feature prevents the app from saving your searches, stops it from logging your route in your Location History, and temporarily pauses the personalisation algorithms that use your past data to recommend new places.
How to Turn On Incognito Mode in Google Maps
Incognito Mode is available on both the iOS and Android versions of the Google Maps application, and the process to activate it is identical on both platforms.
- Open the Google Maps app on your smartphone or tablet.
- Look in the top right corner of the screen, next to the search bar, and tap your circular Profile Picture.
- A menu will slide up from the bottom of the screen. Look for the option with the icon of a hat and glasses, labelled Turn on Incognito mode. Tap it.
- The app will briefly reload, and a black banner will appear at the top of the screen confirming that Incognito Mode is active. Furthermore, your profile picture will be replaced by the black hat and glasses icon, serving as a constant visual reminder that your searches are not being saved.
You can now search for your destination and start your navigation exactly as you normally would. When you are finished, you must manually turn the feature off to resume your normal, personalised experience.
How to Turn Off Incognito Mode
- Open the Google Maps app.
- Tap the Incognito icon (the hat and glasses) in the top right corner where your profile picture used to be.
- Tap the large button that says Turn off Incognito mode.
The app will reload again, your profile picture will return, and Maps will begin saving your location history once more.
What Incognito Mode Actually Does (and Doesn’t) Do
It is crucial to understand the limitations of Incognito Mode. It is a privacy tool designed to stop Google from associating your current trip with your personal Google Account. It does not make you invisible on the internet.
When Incognito Mode is ON, Google Maps will not:
- Save the places you search for in your account history.
- Save your driving route to your Location History or Timeline.
- Use your current activity to personalise recommendations later.
- Update your shared location (if you use Location Sharing with family or friends, your location will temporarily freeze at the last place you were before turning Incognito Mode on).
However, Incognito Mode does NOT:
- Hide your location from your cellular provider. Your mobile network always knows which cell tower you are connected to.
- Hide your location from law enforcement if they issue a warrant for your phone’s GPS data.
- Hide your location from other apps on your phone. If you have Facebook or a weather app running in the background with location permissions enabled, those specific apps can still see where you are, even if Google Maps is ignoring you.
Incognito Mode is perfect for hiding a surprise trip from a spouse or preventing a one-off visit from ruining your restaurant recommendations, but it is not a tool for achieving total digital anonymity.
