Google Maps lists: unbeatable for places, awkward for everything else
Your “want to go” list holds 180 stars scattered across half the city. For the recipe from a Reel and the museum tip from a chat it does nothing at all.
Should I move away from Google Maps lists?
No, and we mean that. For places there is nothing better. Maps knows opening hours, reviews, photos and how to get there. If you are heading out now, Maps is the app you open, and Swiva does not change that.
The point is a different one: a Maps list can only hold things with an address. The recipe, the podcast, the sport you want to try, the trip someone suggested in a group chat, none of that fits. Which is why your ideas end up in four separate places.
How Maps and Swiva work side by side
This is not a migration. It is a division of labour, and it only works if you set it once on purpose.
- Step 1
Let Maps keep the places you go to often
The supermarket, the garage, the dentist, your usual place. Those are navigation targets, not ideas. They have no business in an idea list.
- Step 2
Go through your “want to go” list once
With 180 entries, experience says about 20 are still real. The rest are places from a holiday, closed businesses and things you saved three times.
- Step 3
Share the real ones to Swiva
Open the place in Maps, tap share, choose Swiva. The place comes across with its address, and you add why you want to go and with whom.
- Step 4
Add the things without an address
The recipe, the class, the exhibition without a date yet. Only once those sit next to the places is it a list you can genuinely choose from.
- Step 5
For navigation you go back to Maps
Once you have decided, open the place in Maps again and go. Swiva does not replace a map and does not try to.
Maps lists and Swiva side by side
Less a comparison than a split of responsibilities.
| What it is about | Google Maps lists | Swiva |
|---|---|---|
| What fits in | Anything with an address | Places, recipes, activities, classes, your own ideas |
| Opening hours and reviews | Right on the place, always current | Not included, that is what Maps is for |
| Navigation | The reason Maps exists | Not part of it |
| List size | Google names 3,000 entries, above that the display can break | Lists are cut to occasions, not to volume |
| Editing together | Possible, but tied to the share link | An invitation to the account, independent of a link |
| Choosing | Scan the map or the list | Swipe through the list |
Where Maps lists are clearly better
When you want to be there in twenty minutes
Opening hours, how busy it is, reviews and the route in one step. No idea app can replace that, and Swiva does not try.
- Good fit if:
- You have already decided and want to leave.
- Not ideal if:
- You do not yet know what you are doing at all.
On a trip with a lot of places
One list for Lisbon, every point on a map, and you see at a glance what is near your hotel. That spatial view is Maps' real strength.
- Good fit if:
- The question is what is nearby.
- Not ideal if:
- The question is what you feel like doing.
As an address book for places
The shop you pick something up from twice a year. That needs no note and no context, just the point on the map.
- Good fit if:
- You only need the place and the route to it.
- Not ideal if:
- You want to remember why you saved the place.
Where Maps lists hit their limit
Anything without an address falls out
A recipe, a climbing course, “learn chess again”, a concert without a venue yet. None of that has a place in a Maps list, so it ends up somewhere else.
The note is too short for the context
You save a place and six months later cannot recall whether someone recommended it, whether it is expensive or whether you only meant to book. The star does not remember why it is there.
Shared lists break more quietly than you expect
If sharing gets revoked or the link changes, the list simply stops opening for everyone else. It looks like data loss and is really an access problem.
Big lists get unreliable
Google itself names 3,000 entries per list and notes that larger lists may not display properly. In practice it gets unmanageable long before that.
What Swiva cannot do here
Swiva is not a map. There is no navigation, no opening hours, no reviews and no live busy indicator. For all of that you keep going to Maps, and that is how it should be.
Swiva also does not read your saved places out of your Google account. You share individual places through the share menu. With 180 stars that means going through them once and keeping the ones that still hold up. That is the whole effort, and afterwards you have a list instead of a sky full of stars.
A few quick answers
Can Swiva import my Google Maps list?
Not as a whole. Swiva does not connect to your Google account. You share individual places through the share menu in Maps, and the address comes across with them.
Is there a limit on saved places in a Maps list?
Yes. Google names 3,000 entries per list and notes that lists with more entries may not display properly.
So do I need two apps?
For getting there, yes. The split is fairly clean though: Maps answers where and how do I get there, Swiva answers what are we doing in the first place.
Can I keep a list going with friends?
In both apps, with one difference. In Maps access hangs off the share link, in Swiva you invite people directly and can change that at any time.
Does Swiva cost anything?
No. Swiva is free on iOS and Android, with no ads and no paid suggestions inside your lists.
Maps stays. The ideas get their own place.
Twenty real places plus everything without an address, and you finally have a list.
Free to download, for iPhone and Android.