Get ready to rely on your Google Maps app even more.
On Wednesday, Google announced on its blog that the company is adding live transit updates in two cities to the wildly popular Google Maps app. The app, available on both the iPhone and Android operating systems, already gave you the option of seeing the best options for getting from one point to another by either driving, public transit and or walking, along with traffic congestion updates. But, until recently, it couldn't tell you if the public transit suggested by the app was running on time or very late.
That's about to change. And the lucky cities that are getting real-time public transit departure time updates are New York City and the greater Salt Lake City area, according to the Google blog post. In New York City, the updates will be about the subway system, also know as the MTA. In Salt Lake City, the updates will cover buses and trams.
Washington D.C. also gets added help from Google Maps via live service alerts, the blog post said, which will alert transit users to delays such as upcoming track work. The app already gives transit help -- including pick-up locations, departure times and fare amounts -- in about 800 cities, spread across 25 countries, the Google blog post said.
Google's Soufi Esmaeilzadeh, a company partnership development manager, told The Washington Post that the addition was part of a push to improve the maps app overall and make it even more valuable to real-world users.
"When people are on the go, they can check for directions and [an alert] pops up," she told the newspaper.
Don't see your city on this list? Don't worry. The Google blog post announcing the news ended with a bit of hope. It said: " And if you represent a transit agency that would like to participate in Google Maps, please visit our site for transit agency partners."
