Expanded Incognito Mode Keeps Google From Snooping on Even More Parts of Your Life

Google CEO Sundar Pichai isn’t wasting any time at this year’s I/O developer conference. But one breakout feature announced during the keynote is that Google plans to add incognito modes to both search and its Maps app.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai isn’t wasting any time at this year’s I/O developer conference. But one breakout feature announced during the keynote is that Google plans to add incognito modes to both search and its Maps app.

Pichai didn’t spend a whole lot of time on this feature–it was part of a flurry of privacy-related updates. But we did get to see a screencap that showed the ability to turn on Incognito mode. Ostensibly, it works the same way as it already does on Chrome and YouTube. What does this ultimately mean? Well, your search and travel data won’t be linked in your history. So soon, you can keep your location searches and trips seeeeecreeeeeet–for all your hot trysts, secret trips, and maybe more innocently, surprise party planning.

“Soon” is about all we got from Pichai as to when we might see this feature go live. Incognito mode will also be coming to search sometime later this year. Technically, you can already search in Incognito mode, but only if you’re using the Chrome browser. This should open Incognito searches up to everyone who uses Google’s search engine on other browsers, like Firefox or Opera.