Google Maps May Introduce a New Feature to Suggest Well-Lit Streets for Pedestrians
Google Maps is among the top mapping apps for millions of commuters worldwide. It is a great service by Google that helps millions of users every day to commute to their regular places, i.e., Office, College, etc. as well as new places and unfamiliar routes. With help from Google Maps, you can easily commute places that you are not familiar or go to essential places like hospitals, grocery stores, banks, and more. Over 14 years of its inception, Google has added many features, both for safety, and convenience, to Google Maps to make it as helpful as possible. From features like an alert when taxi goes off route to features where it suggests the most preferred dish for any restaurant, Google always made sure that the app stays relevant for users from all walks of life.
To continue this trend, Google is planning to launch another safety feature to its Google Maps to show brightly lit walking routes for pedestrians. According to a post on XDA-Developers – an Android development community – it has discovered few lines of codes in the latest beta version of Google Maps that suggest there may be a new feature in the future. “Google Maps v10.31.0 beta contains strings that indicate that Google is working on a new feature that will help make your night time travels a bit safer. According to the string descriptions, this new Lighting Layer will highlight streets that have good lighting with a yellow color highlight, and by extension, help users avoid streets with poor or no lighting,” said XDA-Developers in the blog post.
According to the codes found in the apk breakdown, when the new feature comes, it will highlight well-lit streets with bright yellow lines to help commuters decide a better and safer walking route. Similarly, streets with poor lighting or no lighting will also be marked with a different color.
Google has not confirmed this new feature, and it is very much possible that this feature may never see the light of an actual launch. If Google decides to launch this feature, however, it may launch in India first. Google has a long history of testing new Google Maps features in India first, and if it receives positive feedbacks, then only it proceeds with a global launch. Also recently, India has seen a horrific rape of a Hyderabad based veterinary, so launching a feature like this will help many women in the country to navigate to their home or workplace safely.
For a long time, both men and women on the internet have asked mapping companies to add such a feature.
Now that Google is planning about launching this new feature, it will be a great help for those who often commute in the night.
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