Google Maps introduces real-time air quality tracking feature for Delhi and beyond

First Published | Nov 12, 2024, 4:58 PM IST

Google Maps now provides real-time AQI data in India and over 100 countries, helping users assess pollution levels and plan trips accordingly. The tracker offers advice on addressing local air quality issues and uses color-coding to indicate pollution severity, updated annually for accuracy.

The Delhi pollution levels have reached hazardous levels which means you need to be equipped with masks, air purifiers and more.  By providing real-time data on maps for users in India and more than 100 other countries, Google is contributing to the improvement of the air quality index, or AQI tracker.

Although the country's AQI data has long been accessible on maps, the real-time application allows you to better assess the current situation and plan your trip based on safety levels.

In addition to providing you with improved information on pollution levels, Maps' new AQI tracker offers advice and direction on how to address the local air quality issue.

For real-time reasons, the AQI tracking is updated annually, which is preferable than a 24-hour reading, particularly during this time of year when the northern regions of the country are overtaken by pollution and stubble burning.

The maps will display the range of air quality by color, with dark red denoting a region with high pollution and green denoting a safe and healthy environment.

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Both the browser version and mobile users may already access the improvements on Google Maps. Even the most recent AQI reading timeline update is visible. These kinds of tools are becoming essential, not just in nations like India but also in others. Since Google is providing these for free, more people will be able to simply monitor the quality of the air around them.

Maps are used extensively around the world, and even if you ride a two-wheeler to work, they are useful in markets like India. Instead of using its ambiguous take the ramp guidelines, which have perplexed millions of people for years, Google just released a new and simple method of navigating across flyovers: just say "take the flyover."

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