Google Maps will now let others know how long till your battery's dead.
Sharing locations within Google Maps has become a popular way to locate a friend in a new place or guide someone to a hard-to-find destination.
But the feature was not without flaws. Some users complained that if their phone died after sharing a location, the marker representing them either twirled or did nothing, confusing those looking for them after arriving. It was often difficult to know whether someone's smartphone had died -- or if something worse had happened.
Now, when you share your location with someone, they will also see how much battery life your phone has left so that they can plan accordingly.
The feature was first noted by Android Police in February, after it found lines of code referencing battery life and whether a smartphone was charging in conjunction with the location sharing feature.
Google appears to be rolling out feature to a larger audience now, that more users are noticing the battery life indicator text when they share their location.
Google added the ability to share your location in 2017 to compete with other social media services that were including location-sharing into their apps.
Using the location sharing tool, users can share a destination with a friend or get directions to their location or a mutual meeting spot.
The tool is not without its detractors, who point to obvious concerns of stalking and robbery that come with an idea like this. But last year Google addressed the concerns, telling TechCrunch, "This is about making things simple, accessible and giving people that access to transparency...Anyone with bad intentions can find many other apps and means out there. We are focused on adding on that layer of convenience."
Google has also included a notification system that lets you know you have the feature on in case you would like to turn it off.
*This article was featured on Download.com on August 3, 2018: https://download.cnet.com/blog/download-blog/google-maps-app-now-lets-you-share-battery-status-along-with-your-location/