How to Create a Google Street View Tour (Step by Step)

Google Street View is the largest 360° platform in the world, and for most people it is something they simply consume: they move a pin on Google Maps, drag the camera around, and explore places they will never visit. But Street View is not only built by Google’s cars. Businesses, venues, photographers, and local communities can contribute their own panoramas, which means you can publish a real Street View tour of your own property.

In this guide, you will learn how to create a Google Street View tour from start to finish: how to capture the 360° photos, how to prepare equirectangular images that pass Google’s requirements, how to add the GPS data that Google needs, and how to upload and publish the tour. No coding, no special technical skills, just a camera that shoots 360° and a little patience for Google’s review process.

What Google Street View Accepts

Before shooting anything, it helps to understand what Google wants. Street View panoramas must be equirectangular images: a full 360° scene flattened into a single rectangle with a 2:1 width-to-height ratio. The practical requirements are:

• A 2:1 equirectangular aspect ratio (for example, 4096x2048 or 8192x4096 pixels).
• A minimum resolution of 4096x2048; higher resolutions look noticeably better when users zoom in.
• JPEG or PNG format, with the horizon level and no obvious stitching seams.
• GPS coordinates for outdoor panoramas; indoor panoramas are anchored to a known location.
• Content you have the right to share: by publishing, you grant Google a license to use the images in Street View, Google Maps, and related products.

Keep in mind that everything you publish is public. Faces and license plates are usually blurred by Google’s automated processing, but you should still be selective about what ends up in your tour.

Step 1: Capture 360° Photos for Your Tour

A Street View tour is a sequence of vantage points. Outdoors, that usually means one panorama every 5 to 10 meters along a walking path; indoors, one per room or zone. Plan the route first, then shoot with these rules of thumb.

Camera and tripod

Any modern 360° camera works: an Insta360, Ricoh Theta, or GoPro will do the job. The most common mistake is forgetting the tripod or leveling it: a tilted horizon looks broken in Street View, and a visible monopole gives away the shot. Check our guide to the best 360 cameras for virtual tours and our list of best tripods for 360 cameras if you are still deciding what to buy.

Shoot equirectangular from the start

If your camera can save equirectangular images directly, use that mode. If it only saves front-and-back spherical pairs or two video streams, you will need to stitch them into a single 2:1 equirectangular photo afterward, which our guide explains step by step in how to create 360 degree photos with your phone or camera. Aim for 5.7K or 8K output when you can: the more pixels, the sharper your tour stays when Google resizes it.

Step 2: Prepare the Equirectangular Images

Street View has a higher tolerance for raw shots than a polished virtual tour, but sloppy files still get rejected or look bad. Before uploading, run every panorama through this checklist.

• Confirm the file is a true 2:1 equirectangular projection, not a cropped or stretched still.
• Remove the tripod, monopole, or the photographer with an AI inpainting tool; we cover the best options in AI image editing for 360 photos.
• Check the horizon: it should be level in every shot, and the ground should not be clipped off.
• Keep exposure and white balance consistent between shots so the tour does not flicker as users move between panoramas.
• Name files in route order (for example, 01-entrance.jpg, 02-plaza.jpg) so the upload sequence follows the walking path.

Step 3: Add GPS and EXIF Data

For outdoor panoramas, Google needs to know where each photo was taken. The data lives in the image’s EXIF block: latitude, longitude, and ideally altitude.

Most 360° cameras can log GPS directly into the images if you enable it before shooting, which is the cleanest path. If your camera cannot, geotag the photos in desktop software using a route map or a track file, and make sure your converter does not strip EXIF when it re-encodes the image. Indoor panoramas do not need per-photo coordinates; the upload tools let you anchor them to the venue’s location on Google Maps instead.

Step 4: Upload and Publish on Google Street View

There are three practical ways to get your panoramas into Street View, and the right one depends on how much you want to publish.

Option A: the Google Street View app

The Street View app on Android is the lowest-friction route. You can shoot with your phone or import equirectangular photos, and the app stamps the GPS data, submits the images, and tracks the review status. It is ideal for a handful of panoramas around a shop, a park, or an event. Expect the app to be selective: it is designed for quick personal contributions, not large batches.

Option B: partner and cloud upload programs

Professional and larger projects usually publish through Google’s partner programs and cloud upload tools (such as the Street View image upload service available through Google Cloud and Maps Platform). These accept batched panoramas with coordinates supplied per image, which makes them the right choice for a full tour with dozens of vantage points. Some third-party camera apps also include a one-tap share to Street View, which handles the export for you.

Option C: let a tour platform handle the Street View export

If you are building a tour for a client or your own business, many 360° workflows now let you publish to Google Street View and to your own website from the same set of photos, so you do not maintain two separate projects.

What happens after you submit

Submitted panoramas go through Google’s review and processing pipeline. In practice this takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks: Google checks the format, the location, the license terms, and runs its automated blurring of faces and license plates. If a photo is rejected, you will usually get a reason (wrong aspect ratio, blurred image, or a privacy flag) and can fix and resubmit it. Once approved, the tour goes live on Google Maps and Street View, and you get a shareable link for every panorama.

Step 5: Maintain and Refresh the Tour

A Street View tour is not fire-and-forget. Buildings get renovated, seasonal events change the look of a venue, and Google’s own coverage evolves. Treat the tour like any other marketing asset: re-shoot it on a calendar (most businesses do a light refresh every 6 to 12 months), re-verify the links, and request blurring or removal when new sensitive details appear in the area. Because the panoramas are public and permanent in the index, it is always better to publish a clean tour than to request cleanups later.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can anyone add photos to Google Street View?

Yes. Individual contributors can use the Street View app, and organizations can publish through partner upload programs. Every submission goes through Google’s review, so quality and the license terms matter as much as the location.

What resolution does Google Street View require?

The minimum accepted size is a 4096x2048 equirectangular image (2:1 ratio). Higher resolutions such as 8192x4096 are strongly recommended, because users zoom in and lower-resolution panoramas look soft quickly.

Do my photos need GPS data?

Outdoor panoramas do. Google needs coordinates to place each photo on the map. Indoor panoramas do not need per-photo GPS; they are anchored to the venue’s location during the upload instead.

Can I publish an indoor tour to Street View?

Yes, through the partner and cloud upload routes. Your indoor panoramas will appear at the venue’s location on Google Maps, which works especially well for hotels, museums, shops, and event spaces.

How long does Google’s review take?

There is no fixed SLA. Small personal batches often go live within days, while larger partner uploads can take several weeks. Rejections come with a reason, so keep the submitted files organized and be ready to fix and resubmit.

Do I keep ownership of my photos?

You keep the copyright, but publishing on Street View means you grant Google a license to display the images in Street View, Google Maps, and related services. Assume everything you submit becomes public and plan the tour accordingly.

Conclusion

Creating a Google Street View tour comes down to five disciplines: plan the route, capture clean equirectangular panoramas, fix the images, geotag them, and submit through the right channel. The capture and prep skills are the same ones every 360° photographer learns, so once your workflow is in place, publishing to Street View is simply one more output of the shoot. For a professional property or venue, the same set of photos can then feed both the public Street View tour and your own branded virtual tour on your website, giving you Google’s distribution and full creative control at the same time.

Ready to see how your own property would look as an interactive 360° tour? You can start a free demo without any commitment and walk through a sample tour, or browse the tour plans to see what publishing with your own platform costs.