Google Earth Desktop Client To Be Retired In 2027 | Hackaday

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Come next year, those looking to explore the globe virtually via Google Earth will have to do so on their smartphone or from within their browser, as the search giant has decided to discontinue the service’s desktop client in June 2027.

The good news is, the lights won’t be going out immediately. According to a post made on Google Earth’s official support community by Community Manager [Aamir F.], the June cutoff date applies to new downloads, but nothing is changing on the backend, so existing installs will continue to work.

Now, while it’s safe to assume that you’ll have little trouble finding an alternate download of the Google Earth client for years to come, there’s no telling how long before they quit working. It probably goes without saying that Google won’t be providing updates to the software anymore, so if there’s any kind of breaking change on either the API side or at the OS level, that’s the end of the road. There’s always a chance that Google will decide to release the source and turn the whole thing over to the community… but we wouldn’t hold our breath on that one.

To be fair, we have absolutely no doubt that the majority of Google Earth users already access the service via the smartphone app or their browser. Honestly, you could say the same thing about most services these days. So in that respect, it’s not much of a surprise that Google doesn’t feel like keeping the native version going. That said, several commenters in the community thread pointed out features from the desktop client that aren’t available in the other versions.

Are you still using Google Earth on the desktop? Will this change impact something you’re working on? We’d love to get your take on this in the comments below.

Thanks to [Mark Lloyd] for the tip.

21 thoughts on “Google Earth Desktop Client To Be Retired In 2027”

Feeling bittersweet. It was a software that worked well on old PCs and it was among my "standard" software to install on a new computer (back when I used windows, and didn’t mind proprietary software). It was the only option to get routes for a road trip since smartphones didn’t exist (and my family didn’t own a garmin GPS) so I printed out the route for my dad to follow.

The features to view other planets and moon was really cool and way ahead of time. I had fun viewing mars and its geographical features

I also remember a rudimentary flight sim (feature? minigame?), it was fun honestly

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I mapped several farms, drew in water lines and fences and calculated areas. So pity it will be discontinued.

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I remember when it was called Keyhole.

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Maybe they got hit by a trademark infringement and had to change the name?

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In the geospatial world I’m not sure it makes sense to associate yourself with a top secret program of spy satellites. You don’t have to offend anyone to have them start thinking your basic services are covered by ITAR.

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(Side note: the .kml file format is a relic of that time, as it stands for "keyhole markup language")

Concern about the name may have been a factor, but I think it was mainly changed because Google likes naming products after themselves.

Keyhole Inc. was a geospatial data and satellite imagery company that Google bought out in 2004. Keyhole’s name undoubtedly was a homage the spy satellites, but it hadn’t been a downside for them – in fact, they’d had startup funding from IN-Q-TEL (the intelligence investment firm funded by the CIA).

I’m pretty sure the Google Earth desktop software is a direct continuation Keyhole’s "Earth Viewer" software. Despite its aging design and increasing jank, I’ll sorely miss it. I know most people don’t care about the "pro" features, like complex area measurement, viewshed analysis, data & image overlays, etc., but they really are handy.

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That’s too bad. The desktop client offers a lot more functionality than the crippled browser versions.

I hope they up the game on the remaining access.

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That’s my biggest concern, and why I use the desktop version. I’m sure part of it is simple familiarity of the interface for me. As long as it’s not stripped down to fit on the web I’m not sure I would have any beef. Its not as if I can actively use it without the data connection.

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Yes I still use it. No the waypoint and route features available in the web version are not as extensive, at least they weren’t last time I looked. Which admittedly was quite a while ago. Time to check it out again I guess.

Just another useful tool for the Google graveyard.

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Pretty sure development stalled out due to a protected, restricted version or competitor. They either don’t have an inroad to where they wanted to be, or, they made it and can’t backport features.

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