Google Maps

[Update: Wider rollout] Google Maps tests showing traffic lights on streets

Ben Schoon | Aug 31 2020 - 6:40 am PT

Google Maps is used by millions of people on a daily basis to get around, and Google is often building out new features to make the service even better. Now, it’s been revealed that Google Maps is testing out showing traffic lights on streets, but possible only on Android.

The folks over at Droid-Life obtained several screenshots from a reader that show that, indeed, Google Maps is showing traffic lights around that area. The user, who lives in West Des Moines (a soon-to-be Google Fiber city), showed several different points around the city where traffic lights are clearly visible at intersections. The lights can be seen on a traditional map view as well as during navigation mode.

This functionality could be handy for a number of reasons, but in navigation especially, it might be useful for planning ahead and not being caught off-guard on the upcoming light. Of course, though, Google can’t show you the current status of the light.

Update 7/9: Google has confirmed to The Verge that it is testing traffic lights in certain areas around the United States. That includes portions of New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other cities around the country. It plans to expand the feature to more areas over time.

To help people stay better informed on the road, we’re testing a Google Maps feature on Android that shows the location of traffic lights in select cities across the U.S.

From what we can tell, this appears to be a server-side test of some kind, but the test group might be pretty small or might be limited only to certain areas/cities. It’s not live on my Pixel 4 XL, which is currently using the latest Google Maps version.

Update 8/31: As spotted by the folks over at Android Police, it seems this functionality has rolled out widely on Android. It’s now showing on my Galaxy S20+ and the functionality seems to be showing up for the majority of Google Maps users at the moment. This is still US-only (from the looks of it) and still a part of a server-side rollout, meaning you might not see it yet.

Notably, Apple launched this functionality for its mapping service last year. From the looks of it, Google isn’t copying the stop sign offering in Apple Maps, at least not yet.