Google Maps review drafts feature is going away, unpublished reviews will soon be deleted

Google Maps users are receiving an email that review drafts feature will be going away from July 16, 2024. While the move generally hasn’t raised many eyebrows, the email sent to notify users has a minor twist that’s left some scratching their heads.

The email from Google states, “You are receiving this email because you have one or more unpublished reviews saved on Google Maps.” The issue is that recipients of the email cannot, for the life of them, locate these alleged drafts. This is a tad confusing and even mildly frustrating some Google Maps users.

It would have been far more helpful if Google simply highlighted the unpublished reviews in question. This would have allowed them to either quickly publish or delete the reviews as they saw fit. Instead, users are faced with the bewildering task of hunting down reviews that may or may not actually exist.

The email does offer a slightly convoluted workaround: users are instructed to use Google Takeout to download all unpublished reviews before July 16 and then presumably sift through that data to find any drafts. If you fail to do this, you’ll lose all draft reviews in Google Maps. While an option, this method is significantly less convenient than Google directly identifying the reviews within its platform.

As of July 16, Google plans to permanently remove all draft reviews from Maps, whether you’ve located them or not. It remains to be seen if the company will offer further clarification or a more streamlined process for users trying to grapple with these elusive “phantom” reviews.

Another Google Maps feature seeing the door later this year is Timeline visits and routes data, but while at it, users will also receive support for satellite connectivity features.