Google Maps now features public transit schedules for more than 500 cities and one million transit stops worldwide. To make all of this information more accessible to its users on the go, Google today launched an update to Google Maps for Android. The updated Google Maps app now, for example, allows users to choose which specific mode of transportation (train, bus, tram or subway) they want to see on their maps.
Additionally, Google’s redesigned station pages now make it easier to find information like departure times, which lines serve a specific station and the distance to nearby stations. Users just have to tap on the name of a station to get to these new station pages.
What Else Is New?
While Google’s announcement puts the emphasis on the new public transport features, the Google Maps team also made a number of other changes to the app. Whenever you search for a city or postal code, for example, you will now see the borders of that region (just like on the desktop).
The My Places feature now also makes it easier to access your saved offline maps and custom maps, and if you have Location History enabled, you can now use the app to “browse the places you’ve been on a daily basis with an updated Location History dashboard.”
For the time being, of course, all of these features are only available on Android. Now that Apple has decided to use its own maps on iOS, however, chances are we will soon see a dedicated Google Maps for iOS app, too. In the long run, that may actually prove beneficial for Google and its users, given that Apple only updates the maps app with every major OS release.