[PetrolMan]

Didn't this feature already exist and then disappear? I seem to remember being able to select a roughly 20 mile square area to download to my phone but the data and the feature disappeared after either an Android update or a Maps update.

[advisedwang]

That has existed for a while and never went away (you can access it by clicking on the search bar and scrolling down). What is being announced now is that offline maps can be used for routing/navigation and business info.

[dogma1138]

It always downloaded and cached the area around your location and route. What new here is that you can control it and it also sounds to be persistent, it also will probably download POI and local businesses info as you've mentioned and allow you to use navigation while offline.

This is quite good for my android phone because it seems to try to connect to every metro wifi out there and doesn't fall back gracefully and quickly enough for it to be seamless. The iPhone has a better UX when it comes to this but still would be quite good especially when I go to out of the city and get edge or poor 3G connection, it also will work great when roaming and I won't have to worry about closing the navigation app or pressing anything that will trigger a new search when I'm out of the hotel and don't have wifi.

[jonknee]

Which is super handy. One of my gripes with Google Maps is that (until now) it will navigate you to a place that is out of service, but as soon as you get there it says "You've arrived!" and then takes away the route you just used without a way to get it back. Really poor usability, especially when the app knows you have no service.

[thrownaway2424]

"Whereas before you could simply view an area of the map offline, now you can get turn-by-turn driving directions, search for specific destinations, and find useful information about places, like hours of operation, contact information or ratings."

[theptip]

This adds support for navigation, which I believe has never been possible before.

That said, the ability to download maps for offline viewing was supported years ago, then removed, then added back (hidden in a hard-to-find corner of the app).

[ams6110]

I've had it for the past couple of years on my Republic Wireless phone (which has wifi but no data plan) and it does work for navigation as long as you download the map and start the navigition while on wifi, which is a little cumbersome.

My other complaint was that the area it allowed you to save offline was too small to cover a trip to another city. So you'd have to save separate areas all along the route, and try to make sure they all overlapped a bit.

Hoping that this allows larger saved areas and starting or changing navigation destinations while offline.

[joosters]

Do you still need to be logged in with a google account in order to use the download feature?