Now, if you wish to travel through time to explore where as well as how your ancestors lived in the past, this is extremely exciting news for all-time travel enthusiasts. Simply launch the Google Earth application on your Android smartphone as Google is testing a time-lapse option for time travel that will display historical data and allow you to go to the past.

Google Earth takes things a step further than Google Maps, which assists us with navigating our large cities. We may virtually fly high above our world and see it, firsthand thanks to this. You may spend countless hours seeing those well-organized, breathtaking tours thanks to Google Earth’s slick zoom-ins and 3D buildings.

Even more stunning is the historic imagery. When looking at a location’s evolution across several decades, you can travel in time. It’s a great resource for both fun and scholarly research. Each and every person can access it, and it is free! Furthermore, a strong tool is not required. It works with any Chromebook that is the least expensive.

Google Earth is a technology in and of itself that might be intriguing. Users can look up distant, unfamiliar locations to see how they appear in 2D or 3D, and even look into nearby points of interest. You’ll view everything by default as it is right now. However, you can also examine how the map might have appeared at various times in time with the help of the program’s historical imaging tool. However, this feature might not be accessible for all locations.

Here’s how to use this feature to view the locations you wish to explore on Google Earth with a more historical perspective.

1. How to Go Back in Time on Google Earth for Desktop

By combining information from many sources, Google Earth’s historical imaging feature may demonstrate how a specific place was viewed in the past. Up to the 1930s, you can go. The desktop software, which may appear a little old but has all the features you’ll need and more, is the only place you can utilize the function, though.

• Get Google Earth Pro for your pc.
• Select Earth Pro on the desktop and click.
• Install the app after finishing.
• The search bar may be found in the left pane of the Google Earth Pro program.
• You can search for an area by entering the address where you desire to see older photos.
• The software uses a wonderful animation to bring you there.
• A clock icon with the text “Show historical imagery” should be selected in the top toolbar. On a Mac, the Historical Imagery feature can also be found under View using the app menu.
• So over the map in the top-left corner, a scrollable date option is visible.
• View the map graphic alter as you navigate through the years by scrolling through the period.

As an illustration, the shoreline of Dubai will alter significantly in the aerial images taken in 1984 if we return to that city. It can be as old as the 1970s in some regions and as old as the 1930s in others. The clarity and sharpness of those older photos might not compare to more recent satellite photos.

2. How to Utilise Timelapse on Google Earth for the Web 

Google Earth organizes these stories into themes, such as melting ice caps and expanding urban sprawl, to provide you with a sort of tour of these narratives.

Timelapse is more understandable because of the animation, the built-in time slider, and the contextual information. Additionally, using it doesn’t require downloading an app.

• Utilize the helm icon in the left sidebar to navigate to Voyager on the Google Earth website once it has been opened.
• Opt for Nature.
• When using Google Earth, scroll down and choose Timelapse. The animated time-lapse mode begins and it transports you to one of the predetermined locations.
• To halt the time-lapse animation, go to the right pane. To manually switch between eras, use the year selector.
• A segment that lists Tales with five themes and more than a dozen virtual locations for each of them may be found below the time meter. To begin, pick one of them.
• On the following screen, you can scroll through the items one at a time using the arrows in the right pane.

Additionally, you may view a bigger variety of Timelapses dating back to 1984 by using the Featured Locations option next to Stories. The topics here cover everything from infrastructure to natural disasters & mining to deforestation.

3. On the Smartphone App, Google Earth’s Timelapse

The Google Earth Android app offers timelapse as well. To switch to Voyager mode, touch the helm icon there on google earth’s main page. From this point on, the procedure continues in a manner that is largely similar to that seen on the website.

Timelapse is the sole way to explore past photographs because the historical imaging feature isn’t accessible on the mobile app. Timelapse has been made enjoyable by Google to give you a tour of the locations that have seen the highest significant changes. As a result of the trip’s careful curation, the pictures are consistent of the highest caliber, and error-free.

4. How to Travel Back in Time on Google Maps on the Web

Google Maps offers a few tricks up its sleeve, despite the fact that Google Earth’s historical imagery tool is capable. Since Google has been capturing images of our streets for more than ten years, it has amassed enough information to demonstrate how a location has changed physically. You can get to it in this manner.

• Drop Pegman, the yellow Street View character, on a route where street view is accessible.
• Click the clock symbol in which the street number or name is displayed in the upper-left corner.
• A little sneak peek of the same place from the year you chose on the slider bar is displayed below. If you wish to compare the current view with another year, choose that year.
• For a better view, you can utilize the zoom option to make the image visible on the main screen.

5. On Google Maps for Android, How to Rewind Time

Similar to the desktop version, the Google Maps application for Android has a timeline function that lets you go back in time as far as the location’s street view images would allow. Using Google Maps to travel across time is made simpler because this capability is available on mobile devices. Here is where you can locate a street view timeline.

• Activate Google Maps. If Street View isn’t currently enabled, select Layers and turn it on.
• Zoom in on the area where you desire to see the historical imagery on the preceding screen. Next, tap the street view-enabled road.
• A split screen will appear, with the relevant map view at the bottom and the street view at the top.
• To discover when the most recent street view photographs were captured, look underneath the street address at the bottom. Tap See even more dates on the right corner.
• A chronology of earlier date-stamped pictures of that area will be displayed. To locate the oldest one, scroll to the right.
• To view the street view images from a certain year, tap a date stamp. You can also quickly switch between different months and years.
• To go back to the screen with the current view, use the close button.

6. With a Birds-Eye Perspective, Explore the Entire World (and Beyond).

Google Earth is that area of the web that astounds us with stunning, realistic images of our world. The icing on the cake that allows us to see into our past is the capacity to travel through time. That knowledge might evoke memories of how your town has changed through the years or enlighten you on a particular geographic feature of a historic location. It’s entertaining and educational in both cases.

With Voyager, you’ll discover a wealth of expertly curated guided tours that discuss a variety of cultures and civilizations in addition to the surrounding beauties. Utilize the Google Maps space feature to learn the names of a number of lunar craters if you want to go across our planet, and when you’re ready to look beyond it, take a look at some of the less well-known dwarf planets that are rather close to our own.

Try out some of Google Maps’ features available that are as spectacular as the Moons of Jupiter, if not more so when you return to using it to find driving instructions here on Earth.

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Sum up

Google Earth has the best ability to use Street View to observe how a location changes throughout the year and at night. This can help us in studying geographical changes on earth.

Street View will turn 15 in 2022. According to a Google blog post, as of now, there are more than 220 billion Street View photographs available from more than 100 nations and territories. As a result, it provides you with a wealth of opportunities to investigate and observe both the positive and negative changes taking place in our environment.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Ques 1. Is it Possible to View Older Google Earth Pictures?

Ans: Even though Google Earth automatically shows the most recent imagery, you may browse earlier versions of a map and examine how photos have evolved over time.

All you have to do is access Google Earth and type in a place in the search field. For the image, you desire for a specific period, click view and then on “Historical Imagery.”

Ques 2. Does Google Earth have a Year Change Option?

Ans: Historical Imagery can be accessed by first selecting View. To get to the 3D view option quickly, find the clock icon above it and click it. The time frame you want to watch is yours to choose. The alternatives will also be displayed by Google.

Ques 3. How is Google Earth Different Compared to Earth Engine?

Ans: By navigating a virtual globe, Google Earth lets you travel, discover, and gain knowledge about the world. In addition to many other things, you can explore satellite images, maps, topography, and 3D structures.

A tool for evaluating geospatial data is called Earth Engine, though. Numerous more assessments are conceivable, including ones that examine the amount of water and forest cover, the change in land usage, or the condition of agricultural fields.

Only a portion of the pictures and data from Google Earth are available for study in Earth Engine, despite the fact that both programs rely on part of the same data.

Ques 4. What is the Motive of Google’s Earth Engine development?

Ans: The goal of Google is to put all information in one place, make it valuable to everyone, and make it easily accessible. This goal is served by Earth Engine’s organization of geographical data and its availability of it for analysis.

Generally speaking, Google wants to use technology to improve the world. Google is happy to support Earth Engine’s technology infrastructure, which enables a number of environmental, scientific, and humanitarian programs.

Ques 5. What is Earth Engine capable of Doing for me or my Business?

Ans: Researchers, charities, schools, and governments all utilize Earth Engine to analyze massive amounts of geographical data. Earth Engine offers simple web-based exposure to a sizable collection of satellite photos and other geographic data in a format appropriate for study.

You may easily integrate your current geospatial operations using the flexible APIs and scalable compute power provided by Google data centers that are linked with the data catalog. This makes cutting-edge analysis and visualization at a global scale possible.

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Last Updated on January 1, 2023 by Apeksha Soni