What you must know
- Google has introduced plans to take away a wide range of options from Android, and the newest one is Close by Locations.
- Close by Locations within the Cellphone by Google app permits customers to go looking the title of a enterprise proper within the app, bypassing Google Search or Maps.
- Google says the characteristic wasn’t utilized by many and that going ahead, Google Search and Maps would be the method to discover enterprise numbers.
Google is thought for killing off merchandise, companies, and options usually, however latest months have been notably robust for Android customers. In January, the corporate introduced that Google Assistant would lose 17 options. Now, the Cellphone by Google app is the newest casualty, with the Close by Locations characteristic set to be eliminated “within the coming months.”
The modifications have been introduced by Google in the neighborhood boards for the Cellphone app, as noticed by 9to5Google. “We have discovered solely a really small variety of individuals use this characteristic, and the overwhelming majority of customers go to Google Search or Maps when searching for business-related telephone numbers,” the submit mentioned. “These experiences additionally present richer outcomes and phone data for these companies.”
In case you aren’t aware of Close by Locations, the characteristic basically works like a digital phonebook. You may search the names of companies within the Cellphone app and uncover telephone numbers for these companies with out having them in your contacts. It is partly location-based, pulling the numbers of native retailers and eating places robotically.
Utilizing the Close by Locations characteristic as a substitute of utilizing Google Search and Maps can save customers a couple of seconds. Nevertheless, as Google itself notes, the latter choices are sometimes extra correct. Moreover, Google’s official steerage for individuals who use Close by Locations is to change to Google Search and Maps as a substitute.
The characteristic is being eliminated in order that Google can add higher options to the Cellphone app, at the very least in keeping with the corporate. New options powered by synthetic intelligence might come to the Cellphone app this yr.
“We’re sunsetting this characteristic in order that our staff can concentrate on constructing the best high quality, most dependable, and most modern experiences in telephone calling,” Google mentioned within the submit.
Google highlighted among the AI-based options it has shipped for the Cellphone app, together with Name Display, Maintain For Me, and Direct My Name. Google says there’s “much more deliberate for 2024.”
We will solely assume that Google’s feedback allude to extra AI options coming to the Cellphone app in some unspecified time in the future this yr.
The corporate’s clarification for eradicating Close by Locations is identical one it used for eradicating 17 options from Google Assistant. In that occasion, it mentioned that the options have been “underutilized.” This time, it mentioned that solely a small variety of customers took benefit of Close by Locations.
The characteristic removals additionally come as Google continues company-wide layoffs.
