Google updated its Maps app for iOS today to include the live crowd-tracking feature that's been popular with users of its Maps web service for some time.
While the maps app has had day-by-day, hour-by-hour charts that display when a business or retail location tends to be at its busiest, version 4.27 of the app augments that information with live data to tell users how busy the location is in real time.
Called Popular Times, the feature works by crowd-sourcing anonymized location data from other Google users and also feeds in Google searches to analyze how busy a location is at any given moment. Alongside the live results, the feature also lets users know the average time people spend at a location.
The iOS update also adds support for quick access to addresses copied to a user's clipboard. So when searching in the app, users are now given the option to fill in the search bar with an address copied from an email or other app.
Google Maps is a free download on the Apps Store for iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
Now if Google could add the "typical traffic" feature from their web app to the iOS app, that would be amazing. Such a useful feature, it confuses me why it's not in the iOS app - unless it is and I don't know how to find it? Anyone know about this?