Google Maps uses your phone’s location history to track the stores, restaurants, and businesses you visit. While this data is used to provide you with a timeline of your travels, Google also uses it to send push notifications asking you to rate and review the places you’ve been. For many users, receiving a prompt asking “How was your trip to the grocery store?” every time they run an errand is an annoying invasion of privacy.
If you use Google Maps for navigation but want to stop receiving these constant requests for reviews, you can easily disable the feature in the app settings.
How to Turn Off Review Prompts in Google Maps
You can adjust this setting directly on your iPhone or Android device. The process is identical for both platforms:
- Open the Google Maps app on your smartphone.
- Tap your Profile Picture (or initial) in the top right corner of the screen.
- From the drop-down menu, tap on Settings.
- Scroll down and select Notifications.
- Tap on Your reviews.
- Look for the toggle switch labeled Rate & review places (or “Rate and review places you’ve been”).
- Toggle this switch to the Off position.
How to Manage Other Location-Based Prompts
While you are in the Notifications menu, you might also want to disable other proactive prompts that Google Maps uses to solicit data from you. In the same “Your reviews” section, you can also toggle off:
- Adding photos: Stops the app from asking you to upload pictures you took at a business.
- Questions about places: Stops the app from asking you to confirm business hours or verify if a place has wheelchair accessibility.
By turning these features off, Google Maps will become a much quieter app, serving solely as a navigation and search tool without pestering you for crowdsourced data.