Tags and saved places look similar to each other, but they are quite different. A label uniquely identifies a placeso that instead of coordinates you can see on the map your uncle’s house or your favorite bench in the park, to name a few examples.
Add labels on Google Maps
Google Maps calls places as well as it can. It will try to find a proper name for specific places (for example, Fulanito building), and if that fails use the address (for example, Fulanito Street, 47). When all else fails, it goes back to the coordinates. If none of this satisfies you, you can choose your own names for specific places.
We are not talking about making corrections in Google Maps that will be visible to everyone, but about personal tags, only visible to us. To tag a place you just have to open its information panel (for example, with a long touch on a place on the map) and then press the button Label.
Then comes the time to write a custom name for that place, which can be literally whatever you want, as long as it’s not too long a text. Ideally it’s best if it’s a unique name, but Google Maps allows you to use the same label in multiple places if you want (so doing a search will show you both).
You have two options to save this tag. The standard option is save without more, which will make you see that place on the map highlighted with the name you have chosen from that moment on. You will also be able to search for it and start routes to it using your custom name.
The second option is save it as a contactpressing create contact. Doing so will open a window where you can choose if you want to save the address as the home, work or other address for the contact that will have the same name as the label you have chosen.
When saving as a contact, you will also see the place on the map with the chosen name, but with a person icon instead of that of a label. Otherwise it works the same and you can also search or navigate to that place using the name you have chosen.
When you save a place as a contact, you will be able to see it in your contact list. If it is a new contact, it will only have their location information and no phone number, but you are free to add it manually. This will be useful for marking on Google Maps where do your family and friends live and thus be able to navigate to their homes more easily than remembering the addresses of each one. For other types of customizations that aren’t based on personas, it’s probably more intuitive to just use tags.