Google puts a rolling date on Maps Timeline's shutdown

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• Google clarifies shutdown timing

After several rumors and a period of uncertainty, Google has set a plan in motion for the shutdown of its web-based Timeline feature in Google Maps. Emails are going out to users informing them the service will end, and once that email hits your account, you have roughly six months to preserve your existing cloud-based location history. This data will be deleted unless users save it on their device before the date given.

Google Maps Timeline was originally known as Location History. It is a fun feature that lets you revisit all the places you explored and the routes you took in the past. It's a geographic recap of sorts, like a logbook of everywhere you went. But since 2023, we've been tracking Google's plans to change it from a cloud-based service to a more private on-device feature.

We received an email from Google this past June announcing the service would be killed off on December 1st of this year. On a separate Google account, we then received another email this December with a deadline date of June 2025. As it turns out, the date is different for everyone, and it all depends on when you get that first email.

So what's changing with Timeline, anyway?

The email received by Android Police reporter Chandraveer Mathur in December outlines several significant changes for Google Maps Timeline users. These include:

• Device-specific tracker: Timeline will now be saved independently on each individual smartphone instead of in the cloud.
• Auto-deletion of data: Visits and routes older than three months will be automatically deleted unless users take specific action to save individual trips.
• Older data is at risk of deletion: Only 90 days of data will be migrated to a user's device after the provided deadline.

Also, users will no longer be able to access Timeline on the Google Maps website after June 9. However, there are steps you can take to save your data.

When exactly is the web-based Timeline shutting down?

This is where things get tricky. After we published this story, a Google representative contacted Android Police with clarification: The shutdown is happening gradually, so the date will vary, depending on when you get notified of the pending shutdown.

Google says your personal deadline is contingent on when you receive a notification about the feature shutting down — once the email arrives, you'll have roughly six months to preserve your existing data. In Chandraveer's case, he received the email on December 9, 2024, and his personal Maps Timeline shutdown date was June 9, 2025.

Here's how to save your Timeline data

Do this before your personal sunset date if you want to save more than 90 days of timeline data.

1. Open Google Maps on your Android device and tap the You tab at the bottom of the app.
2. Choose Explore Timeline.
3. Tap Next on the card that pops up alerting you of the change.
4. Choose how many months worth of Timeline data you want to keep on your device.
5. Choose if you want to continue sending user data to Google.
6. Tap Done.

Your Timeline will live on your phone from this moment on.

Users should prepare for the transition. There's no word yet about what happens if someone gets a new phone. We're not sure if Timeline data can be migrated from one device to another. In any case, it's time to say goodbye to Google Maps Timeline as we knew it.