PanoCool Street View Publisher

PanoCool Street View Publisher is a web tool for publishing individual or connected 360° photos to Google Street View on Google Maps. Publishing is free and unlimited. Free publications include a small PanoCool watermark at the bottom of each photo by default; a paid PanoCool subscription unlocks advanced editing and branding controls.

• Product landing page: https://pano.cool/products/street-view-publisher
• Publisher tool: https://pano.cool/tools/street-view-publisher
• Video: Create a Walkthrough Tour on Google Maps
• Video: Upload 360 Photos with Labels to Google Street View
• Article: How to Publish 360 Photos to Google Street View

• The tool publishes 360° photos to Google Street View.
• A Google account must be authorized so PanoCool can upload and manage imagery through Google’s official Street View Publish API.
• The tool does not publish blue lines directly from 360° videos. Use Google Street View Studio for that workflow: https://www.google.com/streetview/contribute/

• Upload individual 360° photos to Google Maps for viewing in Street View mode.
• Upload connected 360° photos to create walk-through tours on Google Street View.
• Connect the photos and give them their locations with AI Auto Connect: AI works out where each photo was taken and which ones connect, and you place the result on the map.
• Bring a virtual tour’s 360° photos, floors and Street View Arrows connections from the PanoCool editor, then place them on the map.
• Set an optional floor level for each photo in a multi-story location.
• Set the heading for each photo.
• Preview photos and their walk-through connections before publishing.
• Edit 360° photos before publishing: blur areas, add text, add icons, add a watermark, and remove objects with AI.
• Update published photos, including their locations, connections, and headings.

Connections link photos so viewers can navigate between them with Street View arrows. A heading is the compass direction, measured clockwise from north from 0° through 359°, that a photo faces. Levels let Google Street View group imagery by building floor.

Google may need several days to process connections and floor levels after the photos themselves become visible.

1. Open the publisher at https://pano.cool/tools/street-view-publisher and click Connect Google account. Photos are published under your own Google account.
2. On the New photos tab, step 1 Add 360° photos: drop the photos, or click choose files. They must be equirectangular JPEGs with a 2:1 ratio, such as 6000 × 3000; Google asks for at least 3840 × 1920. Photos close to 2:1 are stretched to fit.
3. Step 2 Set location and heading: pick each photo in the strip. Drag the red marker, search the map, or type Latitude and Longitude (pasting “latitude, longitude” into either field fills both). Drag the blue handle, or type Heading, to set which way it faces. Optionally pick a Floor level.
4. Step 3 Review and publish: optionally choose a Google Maps place for the whole batch.
5. Click Publish N photos at the bottom, check the summary, and confirm.

1. Add two or more photos and give each one a location.
2. In step 2, select a photo, open Connected photos (Choose photos to connect…), and tick the photos a visitor can walk to from it. The list can be searched by photo number or name.
3. Connections go both ways: connecting photo 1 to photo 2 also connects photo 2 to photo 1.
4. Publish. The arrows show on Street View once Google approves them, usually after a few days.

Photos that are already published can be connected in Edit published photo (see below).

AI Auto Connect works out where each photo was taken and which photos a visitor can walk between, then lets you put them on the map in one go instead of one photo at a time.

1. Sign in to PanoCool, connect your Google account and add at least two 360° photos.
2. In step 2 Set location and heading, click AI Auto Connect. The dialog explains how it works and what it costs: one AI edit per photo. If you don’t have enough AI edits, Start opens the plans and packs; once your AI edits arrive, start again.
3. Click Start. It takes a few minutes for most places. You can close the dialog and keep working; keep the tab open until it’s done.
4. Place your photos on the map opens on a satellite map. Drag the photos onto the building, pull a corner to resize them and the round handle to turn them until they match the building. You can also search the building’s address, use the Size and Turn sliders, or select the photos on the map and use the arrow keys, + and −, and [ and ].
5. Click Apply. Every placed photo gets its location, heading and connections. Undo in the notice puts them back. Check each photo’s direction in step 2 before publishing.

Good to know:

• It works best indoors, with photos taken a few steps apart and each spot in sight of the last.
• Photos on different floor levels are connected floor by floor, and each floor is placed on its own.
• Photos that are already on Google Maps stay as they are.
• A photo AI can’t place keeps its location; give it one by hand.
• Adjust on map in step 2 opens the map again to move, resize or turn the photos you placed.

A virtual tour that already has Street View Arrows (connected by hand or with AI Auto Connect) can go to Google Street View without connecting the photos again.

1. In the editor, open Share and click Publish to Google Street View.
2. The dialog says how many photos and connections go to the publisher. Click Open Street View Publisher: it opens in a new tab. Your tour isn’t changed.
3. Sign in and connect your Google account if you haven’t. The tour’s 360° photos then come in by themselves, named after their scenes, with their floor levels and connections. Videos, flat photos and hidden scenes stay behind.
4. The map opens with the photos laid out as in the tour, on its floor plan drawing when it has one. Drag, resize and turn them to fit the building, then click Apply. A tour placed with GPS starts where its photos already are.
5. Publish as usual.

A floor plan you drew or uploaded yourself has no real-world size, so its size on the map is a first guess: resize it until the photos match the building.

1. Open the Published photos tab. It lists the photos published from the connected Google account.
2. Click the photo, then Edit….
3. In Edit published photo, drag the red marker, search the map, or type Latitude and Longitude to move it. Drag the blue handle, or type Heading, to turn it. Add or remove Connections to your other published photos.
4. Click Save changes. The changes reach Google Maps when you save.

The image itself can’t be swapped. To replace it, delete the photo (click it, then Delete… and Delete; this can’t be undone) and publish the new one.

• Photos show on Google Maps once Google has processed them.
• The arrows between connected photos show up once Google approves them. That usually takes a few days, sometimes longer. Floor levels can also take a few days.
• The Published photos tab groups photos by the day they were published, then by their Google Maps place (No place when they have none). Click a photo to see its status from Google: On Google Maps, Not on Google Maps yet or Google rejected this photo. View on Google Maps opens the photo there, and Arrows on Google Maps shows which of its arrows Google shows. Refresh checks again.
• Google restricts posting on some places: long term, places that aren’t open to the public or that keep attracting off-topic posts, such as schools, police stations and prisons; short term, any place after a spike in off-topic or offensive posts. Photos linked to a restricted place may be rejected or not show up there. Google’s posting restrictions: https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/13036130
• Google removes photos that break its publishing acceptance criteria: https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7400114

Your photos are on Google Maps, and their arrows work when you open one directly. But when you enter Street View from the map, through the Street View preview Google Maps shows for a place or by dropping the Pegman (the yellow person), it shows Google’s own photos of the street.

Google Maps decides which imagery opens from the map, and it can keep showing its own photos of the street there for a while after yours are published. PanoCool can’t choose what opens there, and Google offers no setting for it.

1. In Published photos, click a photo. If it says On Google Maps and View on Google Maps opens it with its arrows, publishing is done.
2. Check the place the photos are listed under. Photos linked to a business or landmark (Google Maps place, in step 3 when publishing) also show on that place’s Google Maps page. Photos under No place, or under another business, don’t show on its page.
3. Give Google time. New photos can take days or weeks to start opening from the map, and Google gives no exact time. A building whose photos were published earlier can already open from the map while a neighboring building, published later, doesn’t yet.

Until then, share the photos’ own links: View on Google Maps opens each one.

Good to know:

• A place can only be chosen when publishing. Edit published photo changes the location, heading and connections, not the place.
• Deleting photos and publishing them again starts over: Google processes them as new photos and reviews their arrows again.

The core publisher is free to use with no limit on the number of 360° photos published. Free publications include a small PanoCool watermark by default.

AI Auto Connect uses AI edits, one per photo, on any plan. It needs a PanoCool account.

The following capabilities require a subscription:

• Edit 360° photos before publishing.
• Hide the PanoCool watermark when publishing.
• Use a custom watermark.

• Cool: includes all subscription-only Street View Publisher features.
• Super Cool: includes all subscription-only Street View Publisher features, plus 200 AI edits a month for editing 360° photos before publishing.
• Business: includes all subscription-only Street View Publisher features, plus 500 AI edits a month, one pool for the team.

This is the watermark on photos published to Google Street View. The PanoCool logo or watermark on a virtual tour is a different setting: see Change or hide the logo.

• Where: the Watermark card in step 3 Review and publish of the New photos tab. It applies to every photo in the batch. There is no watermark setting in your account settings.
• On Cool, Super Cool and Business: untick the Watermark checkbox to publish without a watermark (“Photos are published without a watermark.”). With it ticked, Use my logo… puts your own logo there instead of PanoCool’s, Reset goes back to PanoCool’s, and Size sets how big it is.
• On Hobby (free): published photos always carry the small PanoCool watermark. Upgrade in the card opens the plans.

The watermark is baked into a photo during publishing. It cannot be removed from a photo that is already published on Google Maps. To replace a watermarked publication:

1. Open the Published photos tab and delete the photo (click it, then Delete… and Delete; this can’t be undone).
2. Add the original photo again on the New photos tab, set its location and heading, and untick Watermark in step 3.
3. Publish it.