I spent my last couple of years at Google working on a 3D & AR engine that could power experiences across Maps, YouTube, Search, and other surfaces. Meanwhile my colleagues have been working on data-gathering that’ll use this system to help people navigate via augmented reality. As TechCrunch writes:

Indoor Live View is the flashiest of these. Google’s existing AR Live View walking directions currently only work outdoors, but thanks to some advances in its technology to recognize where exactly you are (even without a good GPS signal), the company is now able to bring this indoors.

This feature is already live in some malls in the U.S. in Chicago, Long Island, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle, but in the coming months, it’ll come to select airports, malls and transit stations in Tokyo and Zurich as well (just in time for vaccines to arrive and travel to — maybe — rebound). Because Google is able to locate you by comparing the images around you to its database, it can also tell which floor you are on and hence guide you to your gate at the Zurich airport, for example.