Traffic jams sometimes happen when you least expect it. Fortunately, Google Maps has just unveiled a new function that will delight motorists: display traffic jams directly on the smartphone’s home screen.

Traffic jams sometimes happen when you least expect it. Fortunately, Google Maps has just unveiled a new function that will delight motorists: display traffic jams directly on the smartphone’s home screen.

Traffic jams are really a nuisance and a waste of time. It’s always a bad surprise when your driving assistance application takes you through a completely blocked path. Fortunately, some apps are able to predict traffic. This is also the case of Google Maps, which is acquiring new functions. This is not new, Google Maps, as well as its counterpart Waze – which also belongs to Google – is able to predict traffic in real time. Only, you have to have the application open and a programmed route. However, traffic jams sometimes occur when you don’t expect them, even on routes you know by heart. To remedy this problem, Google Maps has just unveiled a new function: from now on, traffic predictions will be displayed directly on the smartphone’s home screen.

Google Maps: real-time traffic jam predictions

To benefit from this option, it will be necessary to place the application on its home screen. It will take the appearance of a small square which will allow you to quickly find out about the state of the roads around the current position. If the road is green, everything is fine, but there are traffic jams if it turns red. “VYou’ll see this information for your current location right from your Android home screen. So if you’re about to leave home, work, school, or anywhere else, you’ll know at a glance exactly what local traffic is like. And since Android widgets are touch-enabled, you can zoom in and out without opening the Maps app. “, explains Luke Wroblewski, director of product in a article from his blog.

This toll prediction is enabled by Google Maps users and their travel history. If the app finds that a number of people using the app are on the same street and stationary, it understands that it’s probably clogged. On the other hand, this method does not make it possible to know how the traffic will evolve in the minutes, or even the hours to come.

For the moment, this function is only intended for Android smartphones and will arrive in the coming weeks, as well as the appearance of widgets allowing you to archive your emails with a simple touch or by displaying the different to do lists.