Google has been rolling out new handy features to help out people amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Google Maps recently added a new feature that indicates the locations of food shelters and night shelters in cities across India.And now Google announced on Twitter that it has rolled out Google Assistant helpline number for Vodafone & Idea customers on 2G and feature phones where they don’t have internet access.
As a part of the new feature, these Vodafone & Idea users don’t have to rely on the internet to locate food and night shelters, they can instead make a call to ‘000 800 9191 000’ and say ‘food shelter’ or ‘night shelter’. Moreover, the feature is also available in Hindi.
The same can be done on Google Maps for users who have access to the internet. Google is working with state and central government authorities to surface the locations of these relief centers and a total of 33 cities have now been covered including Delhi, Aligarh, and Bhagalpur. So, people can spot these locations on Google Maps, Google Search, and Google Assistant.
Just search for ‘Food shelters in ’ or ‘Night shelters in ’ in any of these Google products. The same queries can also be searched on a KaiOS Device in addition to Google Assistant and Google Maps. Google is also planning to bring other Indian languages as part of the feature.
In another Google-related news, Google has added support for a 12 person group calling for its users. The announcement around the same was made on Twitter by Sanaz Ahari, Sr. Director of Product and Design at Google.