Google has been doubling down on its “Maps” app of late. Google Maps for both Android and iOS platforms have been receiving a fair share of updates that have made them significantly more capable than they were, say just a year ago. The company is rolling out yet another update that will let folks use the app to get real-time traffic status, as well as info about the best places to eat around their particular vicinity, in a flash.
If you have already received this update, swiping up from the bottom while on the Google Maps interface will bring up three different tabs, namely: “places,” “driving,” and “public transport.” Places provides you with curated recommendations about what are the best places to eat, drink, work and perform various other activities that humans do,. Interestingly, the recommendations will be based upon your current location or upon places that you have manually searched for on Google Maps in the past.
Next up is the “Driving” tab. This particular tab not only shows you the approximate time you will take to reach office or home (assuming you have saved these locations) but will also provide you with information about the real time traffic on your desired routes. What’s more, you can also use this screen to get traffic updates minus the turn-by-turn directions, which can be annoying after you have been traversing the same route regularly for a few months or more.
Finally, the “Public Transport” section can provide you with the details of the different modes of public transports (pretty obvious!) that are available to you from your current location, to whatever location you may want to get to. The tab can also provide you with information about when the next bus or train to your destination will arrive at your location.
Google is actually not introducing anything new, as much as making the information easier to access. Most of this information was already available with the mapping application but required you to tap your way through various options to get to the relevant stuff. After this latest update though, you would be able to use Google Maps in a much more powerful manner.
Meanwhile, Google has started pushing the update to android devices. However, there is no word upon when the same features will be launched for users sporting iOS devices. Should be soon though, Google has already indicated that Maps is a big deal for its and its application does quite well on the iOS app store — despite a variety of competitors including Apple Maps.
