How To Use The New Busy Area Icon On Google Maps? Find Your Shortcut!

Google Maps offers tools for everyone, no matter if you are averse to crowds or prefer to push against the masses of people. Here’s another treat for all the Google Maps users i.e Busy Area feature! The new area busyness feature tells you where the masses of people are so you can avoid them. In case you are wondering how to use the new busy area icon on Google Maps, then here is a step-by-step guide to explain it to you!

These maps and navigation apps make our lives so much easier and traffic-free, especially the Google Maps! The Google Map with this new feature displays area busyness as a glowing orange circle with a bar graph. This detail is already available when you tap a store or look up public transport options. Oh, and the good news is that it’s an extension that can easily be installed on your device!

The new busy area icon on Google Maps, just like other data displays, tells you more than what you can expect to meet while you’re out and about. Learn how to use the new busy area icon on Google Maps to find the shortest possible route to reach your destination within no time! Oh, and it comes with an offline working feature too!

Here’s everything you need to know explained in detail regarding this new Google Maps update and it’s working! Have a look and suit yourself!

Features Of Google Maps New Busy Area Update

While Google Maps offers so many amazing features for its users to optimize the hustle-bustle of life, here’s an added bonus!

Check out the features of the new area busyness feature on Google Maps and enjoy a less crowded space!

Google Maps New Update Allows You To Check How Busy A Location Is! Google has added a new feature in its Google Maps busyness tool. To see a map showing how crowded a place is, you had to first search for it (e.g. a business) before you could get a graph. This new feature, Area Busyness, allows you to see where entire areas of a map are clogged up with people.

You can use the new feature by navigating Google Maps on your Android, re, or computer’s browser.  Move around the map in order to locate a specific area such as downtown, riverwalk, or small town. 

You don’t have to search for a specific place to see the busyness information. Just click on the Busy Area Icon and you’ll be notified about all the busy areas, as per the searched location.

You may also be interested to know How To Change Your Home Address In Apple Maps? 3 Simple Tricks

Google Maps: How To Use Area Busyness?

Now that you know what this new Google Map feature does for you, it’s time to learn how to use the new busy area icon on Google Maps! Here are the simple things you need to keep in mind while navigating the maps.

  1. Open Google Map and search for the desired location.
  2. Zoom in on the area that is approximately 2,000ft or 1km wide and you’ll see a congestion icon. It will flash when you zoom in. As you get closer, the orange shaded area will appear, surrounded by dotted lines.
  3. To view information about the area such as a bar graph that shows current congestion or notes about comparing the number of people to the average day and hour, tap the busy area icon.
  4. You can also scroll through the weeks to view the average level of interaction and pre-plan your trip.
  5. The information screen will also show how to get there.
  6. Scroll down to find the “plus code“, a string of letters and numbers that include 6 or 7 numbers, and the name or municipality that serves as a common address. 
  7. If you don’t know where the address is, you can save this code and return it later. Enter the code in the search box at the top of the map app.

Keep these things in mind so that you don’t get trapped in a vortex that seems to be moving anywhere and everywhere at once. If you don’t want to be involved in it, you can just go with the flow, friends!

Check out 7 Best Maps and Navigation Apps for Android in 2021!

Use Google Maps Offline

Are you traveling to remote areas without a reliable mobile network? Google Maps will still provide directions even if you are offline.

  1.  In Maps, search for the exact location you want to go to before you leave.
  2. Pull up the menu at the bottom of the window.
  3. Scroll down through the tabs, then tap Download
  4. In the next window, click Download again. 
  5. Maps will automatically download a map for the selected area to your smartphone.

When you lose your cellular signal, Google Maps will automatically switch to an offline map to provide directions. Maps will not be able to offer traffic information in real-time because you are offline.

Google Maps Allows You To Share Your Location

There is nothing more chaotic than a group activity where everyone gets separated and can’t find one another. Google Maps can bring you back together.

  1. Tap the profile icon at the top right corner of Google Maps and then tap Location sharing.
  2. Tap Share location to select the person you wish to share your location with, and how long.
  3. Tap Share and Google Maps will forward your location to anyone you have selected.
  4. To see the location of another person, tap the icon at the top and then tap Request.

Travelling to a new place? Do check out 7 Best Maps and Navigation Apps for iOS in 2021!

Wrapping up:

This was all about the fresh Google map update!! Now that you know how to use the new busy area icon on Google Maps, make the best use of the information! You can share this post with someone who is bad with locations! This feature not only saves your time and energy but also keeps your mood good (as traffic makes us grouchy).

If you have any queries related to this post, comment down in the comments section below!

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. How Do You Know That A Shop Is Busy?

To know whether a shop is busy or not, open Google Maps on your phone and search the location you wish to visit. You will find the ‘Popular times‘ option using which you will be able to know how busy that place is recently and throughout the day.

Q. How Does Google Live Busy Work?

Google Live was a feature added to Google maps in 2016. This feature overlaps a red line on the busy routes. This feature shows you whether a route is extremely busy or moderately busy. The data displayed on the live busy tab is totally anonymous data based on popular google map searches by other users.

Featured Image Credits: CNET

Rahul Gupta

Rahul functions as the head of the company’s Research & Insights division. A seasoned Digital Marketing Expert with more than 10 years in Organic Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Business Development, Lead Generation, Management, Customer Acquisition, building diverse portfolios of websites, growing online presence for many tech brands and others.

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