What Google Maps is doing is basically creating a short alias for the long URL, it's not a "direct URL" as such.
What you're seeing is a URL shortener, there are several to choose from, here's an overview of some: https://www.lifewire.com/shortening-long-links-3486603
I'm sure there are some that gives you a simple API for creating the short URLs, which you could access e.g. with a HTTPCaller.
Personally I avoid using URL shorteners because I don't like clicking on a link I'm not sure where it's taking me. There might also be some anti-spam mail filters that will take an extra close look at mails containing the most common URL shorteners, so there's that to consider as well.
My recommendation would be to send the email with HTML encoding (rather than plain text), that way you can format URL as you want.
Your recommandation makes full of sense. Thanks!