Google is providing an easier way of circumnavigating around the town, even if you are in an area where service is patchy. The new feature involves a WiFi-only mode for Google Maps allowing it to be used offline for Android.
Google explained its new features by relating it to 3 scenarios:
CASE-1: You live or are traveling around a place with expensive data or spotty service
Lot many times, we face a situation where sometimes we need to get directions, but we don’t have service, or we do have service – but it’s spotty. So we find ourselves staring at the map in a perpetual state of loading while we sit in the car waiting to find out which way to go. Now for saving our data in spotty services, we can toggle to “Wi-fi only” to use Google Maps entirely offline on Android. And according to the Official Blog by Google, the best part is that you can still use other apps and the rest of your phone as you normally would.
CASE-2: You’re running out of storage
This feature will be very helpful for those users who are having problems with storage space but don’t want to delete photos and apps. Normally, smartphones come with internal storage capacities as low as 4GB, while higher-end models range between 8GB and 32GB. For many of us, that’s not enough for all the videos, music, apps, and photos we cram onto our beloved smartphones.
So Google says, “To ensure that Google Maps users with any storage capacity can download and use offline areas when they need them most, we’ve added the ability to download your offline areas to an external SD card (if your device supports them) on Google Maps for Android. Now you’ll never have to choose between snapping more food photos or the ability to navigate offline.”
While downloading any offline areas, we can also choose whether to download to the phone or to a memory card, and maps show how much space you have in each place.
CASE-3: You just want someone else to do the driving
If you are traveling at home or abroad and need a ride but don’t want to drive, Google introduced a dedicated mode where users can easily compare ride service options without opening multiple apps. In addition to showing options from Uber, Google is now showing GO-JEK rides in three cities in Indonesia with ten more cities coming soon and Grab rides in 24 cities throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. And it also expanded the availability of Gett, Hailo, and MyTaxi in select cities across Ireland, Poland, Italy, Austria, Russia, and Israel.
All these new features will definitely help the users on Android and iOS devices.
