The Android Google maps have come up with a better deal which permits you to download maps and keep it, for future reference. Their application has actually blown the iOS out of water!

It is actually a very handy feature that has been introduced for anyone using road transportation on regular basis. The feature allows you to get a turn by turn navigator for your travel. It gives you a clear idea of where to get off and how not to miss the right bus stops. The offline maps option is the newest addition to these features, which has been made possible with the feature called download maps area.

To activate this, you just need to go to the labs section of the map application. This can be accessed using the Menu button. Then enable the download map option and then browse your place page and hit the more button,to get your desired map. You can then store this map if you want to. You can even easily download it with a tap of your finger.

One advantage here is that Google will download the map of the areas within a 10 mile radius of that venue! This means that you can download the full maps of the entire Manhattan or SF in a single tap. And something more interesting is that it takes you only a minute or so to complete the download over a Wi-Fi connection.

The feature is based on the fact that the Google map has a vector based system for displaying map titles. They use less data and hence are quicker to download and easier to store. It is still a work that is in progress and will soon surely come into a state where you can look up transit maps offline, which is not possible as of now.