It’s been a few weeks since we last heard about Google Maps and its new offline navigation feature. Well, the new update is now released, but it’s not without its initial bugs.
CNET UK took the new feature for a test drive. Initially, when trying to download the whole map of the UK, the service found the selection too large, but a quick zoom to the size roughly of a town solved the problem. That’s about the perfect size for offline support. We can’t imagine too many reasons why anyone would need a map of the entire country downloaded to their phone at once (though we’re sure there are users out there that do).
CNET UK also noted how the offline navigation failed to save London due to a download failure and SlashGear reports glitches within saved maps, such as landmarks and road names not showing up. In our own tests, we haven’t had much luck in downloading anything larger than a small city, so it does appear to be slightly limited. Again, though, we can’t imagine why anyone would need to save a map that large.
This is the perfect new feature for our fellow Global SIM users, as it saves on data no matter where in the world you are, whether you’re traveling in your home country or doing a bit of international roaming in the other more than 220 countries where the GSM services can be used.
The update is now available in the Google Play store if you’re ready to see it in action right now! Hit the Google Play link below. How is the new feature working for you? Let us know in the comments!