Google Maps Gets Offline Navigation And Search
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It’s 8am and you’re in your garage. You have to head into a different direction today, but you can’t fire up Google Maps until you’ve left the garage, because you’re offline. You probably pull off to the side of the road until your phone gets connectivity.
Not anymore. Starting today, Google Maps will make itself available offline (search and navigation) for Android, with iOS coming soon. This feature was first shown at Google I/O in May, and it’s pretty damn great.
“10% of the time our users are getting slow or no results.” Bishop told me. That’s not really conducive to being confident about where you’re headed next. I mean, in some spots in Los Angeles you might as well print out directions and drop them on the floor of your car like everyone used to before GPS.
Snagging an area to download is really smart, as you probably don’t need most of the maps that Google has to offer. Locally, why download the East Bay if you don’t need it? Once you’ve downloaded, you can give the newly downloaded area a custom description if you like.
The key, Bishop showed me, is the seamless transitions between online and off. If you lose connection, Google Maps for Android doesn’t freak out, it simply settles into offline mode and keeps you going on the route you’re on. “We’re really proud of it because it was really hard.” Bishop shared. YOu keep getting turn-by-turn directions, you can search for destinations if you need to go somewhere else and get details about places along the way.
Those seamless online to offline transitions sure would make a nice failsafe for autonomous vehicles, too. I mean, you can have backups for backups, but in the case of a real hiccup, it’d sure be nice for your car to still know where you’re going…even if it’s only for a turn or two. Having said that, I imagine that this was a very necessary step for the self-driving car project, as well as for our personal use.
When you hit offline mode, the app subtly reminds you that you’re probably driving through a mountain or a large tarp has been dropped over your vehicle, thus stealing your connectivity. Kidding, but when you drop bars, you’ll know it:
Once you get back online, you’ll get a heads up.
“We think it’ll dramatically improve your experience.” Bishop told me. She’s right. During my recent trip to Berlin, I screenshotted locations and turn-by-turn directions for all of the places that I needed to go…hotel, office, coffee shop. Had I not? Well, it would have cost me hundreds of dollars in data just like my previous trip did. That was painful.