Google has announced support for a new Plus codes feature for its Maps service, along with the addition of six more Indic languages for voice navigation. The company has also added more features to the app such as 'Smart Address search', 'Add an Address' and as mentioned above, new 'Plus Codes'. Google says that Plus codes are an open source solution that works by combining local codes plus area in a ‘6-character + City’ format. It can be generated and used by anyone with Google Maps on a smartphone or PC, and it can also be searched on Google for displaying a location instantly. The company says it can be used for a range of reasons like “communicating the venue of a temporary event, guiding emergency services to afflicted locations, and providing an identifiable location for complicated addresses.” The Plus code is not available for Maps Go and iOS, and the company said that the feature was available for on desktops from some time now.
Additionally, Google Maps now comes with a simpler way for adding missing home addresses. The Add an Address feature enables users to contribute to the apps’ database and similar to how one adds a business address, they can now also submit new or missing home addresses, which will be added to Maps after verification. Also, in order to search for an address easily in India, Google has introduced Smart Address Search which provides an approximation of the location of an address, in case the user is not aware of the exact place.
Finally, Google announced six new Indian languages for Voice Navigation that include Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam. One can now select from the mentioned languages of their choice by going to Voice selection option under the Maps’ navigation settings under the Settings menu. Maps received support for Voice navigation in Hindi three years ago.