California, US (BBN)-In keeping with Sundar Pichai’s grand theme of services available to all, Google announces offline search in its Maps application along with offline turn-by-turn voice navigation instructions on Thursday.
Aimed to help users in developing countries where access to data is either spotty, expensive, or both, the new features will let people use Google’s services even when they don’t have “super reliable connectivity”, reports The Verge
The new offline functionality is coming to Google Maps later this year, joining the YouTube Offline option (available in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam) that allows you to download and keep YouTube videos on your device for up to 48 hours.
And just to round things off, Google’s making big strides in optimizing data usage in its Chrome web browser as well, claiming it can now reduce data consumption by as much as 80 percent.
