Google Maps now notes your phone’s battery life when you share your location.
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Google Maps has added phone battery status to its location sharing for iOS and Android devices, allowing your contacts to see if you’ll be cut off soon.
When a location has been shared, you’ll see that there’s now a battery icon between the distance and the time since the location was shared, as first spotted by Android Police. This way, you’ll be able to tell if your contact is unable to update you because their battery died.
A quick test confirmed that the shared location displayed the phone’s battery life accurately.
The feature has been improved since the site first noted it in an APK teardown in February, when it only showed the general range of the device’s battery life.
Google Maps added location sharing — allowing you to reveal your exact location to a contact for a certain period of time — in March 2017.
Check our guide to some of Google Maps’ other recent additions, which include alerts about trends and events happening in the area.
