Google Maps prepares ‘lighting’ layer for walkers to use brightly-lit streets

Navigating city streets can be a little frightening at night. In an effort to help users stick to safer streets, it looks like Google Maps is preparing a new “lighting” filter for walkers which adjusts navigation to stay on brightly-lit city streets.

In the latest beta of Google Maps for Android, XDA-Developers spotted several strings that clearly outline an upcoming feature for the app.

Apparently, this new lighting filter for Google Maps would show a yellow line along streets that are brightly lit at night and also mark those which are dimly lit or not at all. Of course, Google won’t have data for every street so there are messages for “no lighting info available.”

We don’t know exactly how the feature will work just yet, but the strings suggest you’ll be able to see the lighting info when you zoom in on the map.

Since this feature is still in early development, it’s largely unclear how Google plans to roll this out. It seems most likely that certain countries or densely populated cities would be the first to get the feature. XDA suggests it could be rolled out in India first considering some of the “horrific incidents” that have recently occurred there. Obviously, this could benefit users around the world, but debuting in India first wouldn’t be out of line.

<string name=”LAYER_SAFETY”>Lighting</string>

<string name=”SAFETY_LAYER_ONBOARDING_DIALOG_BODY”>Yellow lines show streets with good lighting</string>

<string name=”SAFETY_LAYER_ONBOARDING_DIALOG_BUTTON_START”>Start</string>

<string name=”SAFETY_LAYER_ONBOARDING_DIALOG_NO_LIGHTING_INDICATOR”>No lighting info available</string>

<string name=”SAFETY_LAYER_ONBOARDING_DIALOG_POOR_LIT_INDICATOR”>Poor to no lighting</string>

<string name=”SAFETY_LAYER_ONBOARDING_DIALOG_TITLE”>See how brightly lit the streets are</string>

<string name=”SAFETY_LAYER_ONBOARDING_DIALOG_WELL_LIT_INDICATOR”>Good lighting</string>

<string name=”SAFETY_LAYER_TOOLTIP_PROMO”>New! See how brightly lit the streets are</string>

<string name=”SAFETY_LAYER_UNAVAILABLE”>”Lighting view isn’t available at this zoom or in this region”</string>

<string name=”SAFETY_LAYER_ZOOM_IN_SNACKBAR”>Zoom in more to see lighting data.</string>

More on Google Maps:

• Google Maps piloting local recommendations in ‘For you’ tab, adds 3D layer control
• Google Maps for Android, iOS integrating Google Translate pronunciations+
• Google Maps speed limit information boosted in 5 nations but downgraded in 23