Google Maps gets 'Area Busyness' feature in select regions
Last month, Google had announced to bring the 'Area Busyness' feature to the Maps app in several parts around the world soon. With the Christmas festive season upon and as we head to the last weekend of the year 2021, the aforementioned feature is now active on Google Maps.
If the user is heading to any mall or social place in the central part of the local city or even in an exotic location, they will be able to see a notification in the Maps suggesting the place is busy with traffic and more movements of people.
Users can tap on the 'Busy area' label and this will show a chart revealing how busy the area is at different times of day in addition to a directory of restaurants, shops, and recreational places (like a museum) within it. Users can also zoom in on a particular area to find busyness information.
Here's how Google Maps determine how much busy an area is?
Google says that it combines live busyness trends from places in an area such as stores, restaurants, parks, cafes, and more to determine its overall busyness level.
The company says that the trends indicate how busy an area typically is - and when it’s near or at its busiest, we highlight it as a 'Busy Area' on Google Maps.
To determine popular times, wait times, and visit duration, Google makes use of aggregated and anonymized data from users who have opted in to Google Location History, which is off by default.
However, to protect the users’ privacy, Google says it ensures the Maps' system algorithm doesn’t calculate busyness information for residential places like a house or apartment.
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