For the past few weeks, I’ve been part of an experiment group for Google Maps on iOS. The main visible change is that the “X” to close a place view has moved from the search bar to the view itself.

This update has made the app borderline unusable:

- Layers icon disappeared (can’t look at satellite view, etc). Sometimes it reappears but doesn’t trigger any action.

- Selecting places on the map often does not update the place view (tapping on restaurant B after viewing restaurant A, but still showing details about restaurant A)

- Performance is at least 2x worse (on an iPhone 15 Pro). The app becomes totally unusable when the phone is in Low Power Mode.

- Saved pins (eg. Favorites) often do not appear or take a while to appear.

I’ve tried reporting feedback multiple times and haven’t heard a response. This is on the latest version of iOS. Others I’ve talked to do not have this enabled, so I’m guessing this is all fallout from an experiment.

Has anyone else been gated into this?