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How to Use Gemini with Google Maps and YouTube

Ask Gemini for a place, a route or a how-to video, and it answers with real Google Maps cards and YouTube videos. Free, in a normal chat.

About 9 minutes · Beginner · Checked Oct 20, 2026

What Gemini does with Maps and YouTube, in one minute

Gemini is Google's AI, and it can use two other Google apps while it answers: Google Maps and YouTube. Ask about places, and you get cards with the rating and the opening hours, and a map you can open. Ask for a video, and you get real YouTube videos, and a summary of one if you want it.

It works on a free Google account. On ours (checked 10/20, on a computer), the place cards, the map, a route, the video cards and a video summary all showed up in a normal chat. You don't connect anything: Google says Gemini uses the public information in Maps and YouTube on its own.

It needs two things. Google says Keep Activity must be on, which means your chats are saved, so it doesn't work in a temporary chat: there, the same questions got a plain text answer. And Google says some of the Maps features are for people 18 and over, with a personal Google account, asking in English.

Which way to use

Gemini with Maps and YouTube is the fastest way when the answer is a place, a route or a video. Other guides cover the jobs around it.

Use Gemini with Maps and YouTube when

  • You want a few good places nearby, with ratings and hours, in one answer.
  • You need a route, and want to see it on a map before you go.
  • You want a how-to video, or the steps of a long video without watching all of it.

Use something else when

  • Work with many videos and files: You want to ask about several videos, PDFs and notes together in Gemini Notebook, and get answers only from them.

    Read the guide

  • Ask about what's in front of you: You're looking at a sign, a menu or a broken part, and want to point your phone at it.

    Read the guide
Check before you go. The cards come from Google Maps, but Gemini writes the text around them, and it can get a detail wrong. Open the place in Google Maps to be sure.

Your first search with Maps and YouTube, step by step

A real example: Dan, who runs a small bike repair shop, is in Austin, Texas. He wants to see the well-reviewed bike shops around downtown, a bike route across town, and a short video for customers who get a flat tire. The pictures use Gemini on a free account, on a computer.

  1. Step 1: Open a normal chat and ask

    Go to gemini.google.com and sign in with your Google account. Click "New chat". Use a normal chat, not a temporary one. Type what you're looking for and where, in plain words, and press Enter.

    The Gemini message box, marked, with Dan's request typed: Find well-reviewed bike repair shops near downtown Austin, Texas.

  2. Step 2: Read the place cards

    Gemini answers with a card for each place: a photo, the rating, what kind of place it is, and if it's open now and until when. Under each card, a few lines on what reviewers say.

    Dan's request, and under it the first place card in Gemini's answer, marked: a photo of the shop, its name, its rating, and Open with the time it closes.

  3. Step 3: Click a place to see more

    Click the name of a place in the answer. A map opens on the right with the place's details: Directions, Website, photos, what people say in reviews, and "Open in Google Maps" to see it in Maps itself.

    A map of Austin, with the details of one bike shop marked over it: its rating, Open, Directions, Website, photos, what people talk about in reviews, and Open in Google Maps.

  4. Step 4: Ask for a route

    In a new chat, ask for directions, and say how you're going: on foot, by car or by bike. Gemini shows the route on a map, and under it the distance and the time. Click "Open in Maps" to follow it in Google Maps.

    Dan's request for biking directions from Zilker Park to the Texas State Capitol, and the map in Gemini's answer, marked, with the route and Open in Maps.

  5. Step 5: Ask for a video

    Ask for a video on YouTube, and say what kind: short, for beginners, in Spanish. Gemini shows YouTube videos with a picture, the channel and a few words on what's in them. Click one to watch it on YouTube.

    YouTube video cards in Gemini's answer, with the first video marked: its picture, its title and its channel.

  6. Step 6: Get the steps without watching

    Paste a YouTube link and say what you need, like "Summarize this video in 5 short steps". Gemini answers from the video itself, with the minute of each step, so you can jump to it.

    Dan's request with a YouTube link, and Gemini's answer marked: 5 short steps to change a bike tube, each with the minute in the video.

Members

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In the rest of this guide

  • 8 things to ask, with prompts to copy

    • Good places nearby
    • Open on a day, at a time
    • Compare a few places
    • A route on foot, by bike or by car
    • A few stops in one trip
    • A how-to video
    • The steps from a video
    • A question about a video

  • More ways to use it

    • Ask a question after the answer
    • What Connected Apps is
    • Not in a temporary chat
    • On your phone
    • What it can't do

  • When something goes wrong, and how to fix it

    • You get only text, with no map and no video cards
    • Typing @ doesn't offer Maps or YouTube
    • A detail in the answer is wrong
    • Gemini answers "Something went wrong"
    • You can't find the chat to delete it
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Where to go next

Gemini finds the place or the video. These guides help with what's around it.