For millions of people around the world Google Maps is the go-to app for finding their way, it offers a variety of features including but not limited to spoken navigation, real time traffic information, transit directions and much more. One feature that Maps users have been waiting for has finally arrived, Google Maps now officially supports offline navigation and search, enabling users across the globe to find directions and get where they’re going even when there’s no internet available.
Google had announced earlier this year at the I/O conference that this feature will be coming to Maps, it has finally arrived after six months, you can save a geographical area on the device itself and access all navigation and search features even without an internet connection. It lets you view the map offline, get turn-by-turn driving directions, search for destinations and even get information about businesses like hours of operation, ratings and contact information.
Simply download an area by searching for a city, county or country in Google Maps by just tapping on the “Download” button on the place sheet. When the area has been downloaded the app will automatically move into offline mode when it sees that no internet connection is available. When a connection is found or it’s stable again the app comes back online giving you full functionality, including live traffic updates. The app will only download areas to the device when it’s on Wi-Fi to ensure that users don’t incur heavy data charges.
The latest version of Google Maps brings offline navigation and search, it’s available right away for Android and will be released soon for iOS. Google says that it will add more offline features to further enable users to get more done on Google Maps when they don’t have an internet connection.
Filed in . Read more about Android, Apps and Google Maps. Source: googleblog.blogspot