Google helps shoppers beat the queues with ‘peak hours’ app

Google Maps has launched a new feature that lets users see a business’ popular times for each day of the week.

Based on recent historical visits, Google will indicate the busiest times to hit up the gym, go shopping or grab a coffee.

When users search for a place and click on more options, the location card will reveal this information below the address, business hours and phone number.

They can then use the drop down menu to scope out the busiest times on different days of the week to plan ahead.

The tech giant says it’s helping people avoid lines and avoid rush hours.

Kara Berman, Google spokesperson, said: “Much like how we compute traffic data based on the anonymized aggregated movement of people on the road, we are able to determine relatively how busy a place is,”

The service isn’t real-time, but rather aggregated and anonymous.

Regular foot traffic from users who have opted into storing their location history with Google was collected over the span of several months.