What is Google Maps 'Area Busyness' Feature?
The new "Busy area" label that Google Maps has introduced allows it to determine how busy an area is for its users. Google announced the existence of this brand-new 'Area Busyness' feature in a blog post on November 16, 2021. In a blog post, Google explains that Area Busyness combines live busyness trends, to instantly spot when a neighborhood or part of town is approaching or at its busiest, whether you're traveling to your hometown or exploring a new city.
How to use the Area Busyness feature while traveling?
According to the Google Support page, when a user opens the app, Google Maps highlights when a location is getting close to being at its busiest. Now, by tapping on the "Busy Area" label, the app will display a chart showing how busy the area is at various times of day, as well as a directory of eateries, retail establishments, and leisure facilities (like a museum) within it. Finding exact information about busyness may require one to zoom in on a specific area.
Privacy policy
The Google Support page reveals,
We combine live busyness trends from places in an area, like stores, restaurants, parks, cafes, and more to determine its overall busyness level. These 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 protect our users’ privacy, our systems don’t calculate busyness information for residential places like a house or apartment.
It is important for users to understand that "Area busyness" never discloses a person's precise location. Google uses a cutting-edge method known as differential privacy to make sure that all data is kept private, secure, and anonymous. Additionally, Google shows the level of activity for a broad, predefined "area of interest." These areas never display exactly where a crowd is within them. Additionally, it excludes residential locations like a house or an apartment when calculating busyness data.