Google on Wednesday added yet-another safety feature in its Google Maps apps in India for Android users. The feature is known as ‘Stay Safer‘.The feature will send an alert and notify users who are traveling in taxis, auto-rickshaws whenever their vehicles go off-route and also allows you to share the live status of their trips with friends/family. Indian users will be able to use the new feature on their Android phones with the latest version of Google Maps.
Once you’re on the latest version of Google Maps for Android, try searching for a destination for getting directions to that place. A new button called ‘Stay Safer’ should be visible at the bottom of your screen. Now when you tap on ‘Stay Safer’, it brings you two new options called ‘get off-route alerts’ and ‘share live trips’. If you activate the ‘get off-route alerts’ option, the phone will buzz with a prominent notification if the driver deviates more than 0.5km from the Google Maps suggested route. Users can then tap to see where they are compared to the original route, and speak to the driver about the confusion in route.
The users can also choose to share their live trip via ‘share live trip’ with friends and family directly from that screen so they know and can keep track of your journey as well, for added safety. The ‘share live trip’ option allows you to share your location on most social apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Slack, and also shows you, often-contacted individuals. This feature was spotted in testing earlier this month. There is no word on when this feature will roll out for iOS users.
Announcing the feature, Product Manager at Google Maps, Amanda Bishop said, “Through our extensive research across India, we found that a lot of people limit their mobility due to safety-related concerns. To address this, we are launching another India-first feature that will deliver a more relevant and reliable experience to our users. Our new ‘Stay Safer’ feature on Google Maps will alert users who are travelling in taxis, auto-rickshaws, etc. in case their vehicle goes off route, giving them peace of mind.”