Google has decided to open Street View photography for everyone. The company announced that the latest beta version of Street View comes with a tool called interconnected photos.
Using this tool, anyone can take 360-degree photos and distribute them in Street View. To create such an image, it is enough to record a series of photos while walking on a street.
Images are captured through ARCore, the same technology that Google uses for Live View AR experiences. From there it's the Google app that deals with the rest.
The linked photos will appear on the map as blue dotted lines as shown in the GIF shown. In fact Google has always allowed capture of Street View images but they had to have a 360 degree camera.
By allowing anyone with any device to take such photos, Street Map will also have images of remote and uncovered areas to date.
It is currently only offered in some regions and will gradually be offered to all users.
