Google announced pretty big news for their Google Maps app, letting users on Android and soon to come to iOS to download driving directions locally to the device, in case they don't have internet on their route.
Google said "now you can download an area of the map to your phone, and the next time you find there's no connectivity Google Maps will continue to work seamlessly. You can get turn-by-turn driving directions, search for specific destinations, and find useful information about places - like hours of operation, contact information or ratings."
I can't remember the last time I didn't have connectivity, so not sure how useful this will be for me today - it would have been useful years ago. However, international travel, this can come in handy and for users who are in spotty areas.
You can download an area by searching for a city, county or country, for instance, and tapping "Download" on the resulting place sheet, or by going to "Offline Areas" in the Google Maps menu and tapping on the “+” button. Once downloaded, Google Maps will move into offline mode automatically when it recognizes you’re in a location 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. By default, we’ll only download areas to your device when you are on a Wi-Fi connection to prevent large data fees.
Diana from Google posted about this in the Google Maps Help forum also linking to the help center.
Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.
