You just landed at Delhi airport and need to get to your next appointment fast, but you don’t know where you’re going, your connection is spotty, and the directions are taking way too long to load. Gah!
Travelling doesn’t need to be this stressful. From today, Google Maps can help you find directions and get where you’re going, even when you don’t have an Internet connection with the launch of new offline functions in Google Maps.
You can now download the map of an area to your phone, and the next time you find there’s no connectivity—whether you’re on a holiday in Goa or looking up for your next destination from an underground parking —Google Maps will continue to work. Once you have saved that area for offline access, you can get turn-by-turn driving directions, search for specific destinations, and find useful information about places, even when you don’t have an internet connection.
Before you head off, download maps of Delhi in Google Maps by searching for “Delhi”, and then tapping "Download". You can also go to "Offline Areas" in the Google Maps menu and tap the “+” button. Once you’ve downloaded your map, Google Maps will still work even when you’re somewhere with spotty service or no connectivity at all. When a connection is found, it will switch back online so you can easily access the full version of Maps, including live traffic conditions for your current route. Google Maps will only download areas to your device when you are on a Wi-Fi connection.
We first previewed these new capabilities during Google I/O in May, and starting rolling out these features globally last week. Today we’re gradually rolling out the first set of these improvements with the latest version of Google Maps on Android (coming soon to iOS) in India. Over time, we’ll be introducing even more offline features to help you find your way—even when you can’t find a connection.
Posted by Sanket Gupta, Program Manager, Google Maps