Google Maps has a safety feature you’ll hope you never need

Google Maps isn’t just about offering you navigation directions from point A to point B, which is the most basic feature of any navigation app. Google’s Maps is more complex than that, offering users more information about their surroundings and access to more features (sometimes too many) than most of its competitors. The app also includes various safety features to help you navigate potential life-threatening situations. During the novel coronavirus pandemic, Google tweaked the app to highlight important COVID-19 information like nearby vaccine availability, restaurants that deliver, and allow business owners to continuously update the app with real-time data about their operating hours. The company also updated the app with transit alerts and checkpoints, as well as restrictions that might be in place in various regions during the pandemic. The app can display information about crowdedness in public transit to help users practice social distancing where available.

Google Maps also offers safety alerts beyond a health crisis like the pandemic. The app will show emergency alerts from local or international authorities in case of various natural disasters. Maps supports warnings for tropical storms, earthquakes, floods, and wildfires. Each of them comes with its own icon, which will deliver more information about the crisis at hand when tapped. But a user stumbled upon an unexpected Maps safety feature on Sunday, one you’ll wish you never get to see.