Google to unveil 'new Google Earth' on April 18

Google is planning to announce a major update for its Google Earth service next week as it sends out invites for the event scheduled on April 18th, 8:30 AM ET at New York's Whitney Museum of Art.

Google Earth offers a way to view highly detailed satellite images of the Earth in a simulation of the globe, originally launched in 2001 under the name EarthViewer 3D

Without providing many (or any) details, the invite mentions that we should gear up to behold a ‘brand new experience’ for Google Earth. And that’s it.

Notably, Google has scheduled the event just four days before the Earth Day, on April 22. So we can expect some interesting things like a major redesign of the software and some virtual reality features.

Google launched a virtual reality version of the planet-visualizing app onto Steam late last year. The app was only available for HTC Vive headsets at the time, but the team promised to add support for additional platforms shortly. So we can definitely expect an update for Google Daydream.

Also, Google has been developing its stand-alone virtual tours and augmented reality museum experiences for years now and could be incorporating more of those "on-the-ground" kinds of VR experiences directly into its incredibly detailed whole-Earth model.

We will update you with more details of the event shortly, so keep watching this space.