Share a Google Maps list and edit it together
Four of you are going to Lisbon and everyone has three cafés in mind. One shared list saves you around forty messages.
How do I share a Google Maps list with friends?
Open the list, tap share and pass the link on. If you want the others to add places too, choose invite editors instead. Those are two different things, and the difference decides whether you collect together or the others only get to watch.
The pleasant part: you can invite editors at any point, even when the list is already full. That sounds obvious but it is not. With Instagram collections, for example, you cannot.
How to share a list
Create or open the list
Tap the saved area at the bottom and create a new list. A name and description are worth it, because everyone else reads them later too.
Decide private or shared
When creating it you choose between private and shared. Private really means private: only you can find the list as long as you do not share it.
Share, or invite editors
Sharing hands out a link for viewing. Inviting editors gives other people the right to add places and notes themselves. For collecting together you need the second one.
Switch editing back off
There is a toggle that stops other people from editing the list. Useful once the collecting phase is over and nothing should get shuffled around any more.
The difference plenty of people miss
Viewing and editing are two separate rights. Anyone with the view link can open your list and read along but contribute nothing. That regularly leads to everyone dutifully posting places into the group chat so one person can type them into the list.
If that is not what you want, invite editors directly. And because it can be changed later, a Google Maps list is a lot more relaxed here than an Instagram collection, where the decision is made at creation time and cannot be corrected afterwards.
Before you drop the link into the group
Everyone sees everyone
Anyone who can view the list also sees the names and profile pictures of everyone else in it, plus who added which place and which note. Worth knowing with a bigger group.
The list stays yours
Other people find it under their saved lists. If you delete it or stop sharing, it disappears for everyone at once. Nobody has a backup of it.
3,000 places is the ceiling
Google names the limit itself and notes that lists with more entries may not display properly. Plenty for a city list, not enough for a life's work.
A link in a chat is not access
If the link only exists in a chat history, it disappears with the chat. Save the list into Maps properly once and you will still find it in a year.
A map tells you where, not when
After two weeks of planning you have sixty pins in a list. Then you are standing there on Friday evening knowing exactly as much as before. The map does not say who wants to go where, what needs booking, what only opens on Sundays and what someone already tried and did not rate.
For that part, a list next to the map earns its keep. In Swiva you share a place over from Maps, add “Miriam wants to go, book ahead” and file it under “Lisbon evenings.” Later you choose together instead of tapping through sixty pins. Your Maps list stays exactly where it is, and for navigation and opening hours it remains the better tool.
What Swiva cannot do here
We are not a map service and we do not access your Google account. Directions, reviews and opening hours stay in Maps, we keep your idea plus a link back to it.
We do not sync anything either. Changes to your Maps list do not land here automatically, you decide place by place whether it moves over.
A few quick answers
How do I invite editors to a Google Maps list?
Open the list and choose the option to invite editors instead of plain sharing. Only then can other people add places and notes themselves.
What is the difference between sharing and inviting editors?
Sharing hands out a view link. Inviting editors hands out write access. Without that second step, your group will keep posting everything into the chat.
Can I add someone to an existing list later?
Yes, and that is the big advantage over some other apps. You can invite more editors at any time, no matter how old the list is.
Who can see which person added which place?
Everyone who can view the list. They see the names and profile pictures of the people in it, and who contributed which places and notes.
How many places fit into a Google Maps list?
Google names 3,000 entries per list and notes that larger lists may not display properly.
Can I switch editing back off?
Yes. There is a setting that stops other people from editing the list. They can still view it afterwards.
Your next good idea gets to stay.
Save it to Swiva and come back to it when you actually have time for it.
Free to download, for iPhone and Android.