You'll Soon be Able to Search Google Maps Offline Mike Murphy - Quartz
go to original June 20, 2015

It’s soon going to become a lot harder to get lost, even when you’re in an unfamiliar city without cellular service.

Google announced at its I/O developers conference that it’s extending the functionality of Google Maps when there’s no internet connection available. Later this year, turn-by-turn directions and business information will be added to Google’s already very useful offline maps service.

Users can now save a map of an area to their phone and search for places on the map, even without an internet connection. The planned expansion will allow for a richer and more granular version of that search.

On stage at I/O, Jen Fitzpatrick, a vice president of engineering at Google, searched for the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City on a phone, pulled up the museum’s hours and reviews, and got turn-by-turn directions, all while in airplane mode. (A smartphone will still need to have GPS turned on for this to work, although that doesn’t require any data.)

“With offline maps, you won’t need to suck down expensive data… every time you want to navigate somewhere,” Fitzpatrick said.

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