Google Maps is one of the best mapping and navigation services that you can access as of now. The dedicated app for this service comes installed in most phones by default, and it has been used by over 70% of smartphone owners worldwide.
Google has been offering traffic data to its users since 2007, and you can access even fine details like traffic jams, crashes, or general blockades on the road. In case you want to check traffic to work or home before starting your journey, Google Maps is your best bet at doing so.
This app has been updated over the years, and as of now, you can easily access real-time traffic data on most roads, and get accurate traffic congestion statistics to plan your rides. If you’re confused about how to check traffic to work or home, this article will clarify all of your doubts.
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How to Specify your Home and Work Locations on Google Maps?
The first thing that you’ll want to do in case you commute from your home to work on a daily basis, is to specify their exact locations. This allows you to get quick and easy notifications about the traffic congestion on the roads you generally drive on.
The Google Maps app is available on both Android and iOS devices and offers a similar experience on both platforms. In the next section, we will look over how you can easily specify your home and work location in Google Maps regardless of the device you’re running it on. The steps to follow are the same for both Operating Systems.
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For Android/iOS
- Open the Google Maps app on your phone.
- Once inside the app, navigate to the “Saved” icon which can be found on the bottom of the landing page.
- Under “Your Lists”, select “Labelled”.
- Next, you’ll need to tap on “Home”, and select the exact location of your home in case your location access is turned off.
- Under the same page, you’ll also find “Work”. Here, navigate the map, and choose the location of your workplace.
Once done, you should have successfully set your home and work address on Google Maps using your smartphone.
For Browsers on Other Devices
In case you don’t have access to the Google Maps app on the device you’re using, then you can always state your home and work address using your browser. Let’s take a look at how to do this easily:
- Open any browser on your device.
- Either click on this link or type ‘Google.com/maps’ on the address bar and press Enter key to access it.
- In case you’re not logged in to your Google account, do so in order to access and add your desired locations.
- Tap on the icon with the three vertical lines on the top left to access the menu.
- From this navigation bar, tap on “Your Places”.
- Look for the “Labelled” tab, and choose “Home”.
- Add your home address, and then continue with the same steps for your work address. Make sure that you tap on the “Save” button after adding both locations.
Once done, you’ve successfully added all the information that you need to continue with checking traffic on the road between your work and home. You can now easily compare the distance between alternative routes that you can take to reach your destination, and find the least congested road.
How to Check Traffic to Work or Home on Google Maps
Now that you can easily access the routes between your home and work, let’s move on to the process of actually checking the traffic before setting off to work or back home. Similar to the previous section, this process can be done through both the smartphone app or by using a browser.
Check Traffic on Android/iOS
- Open the Google Maps app on your phone.
- Locate and tap on the “Commute” or “Go” button that is highlighted in blue.
- Once you’re into the navigation part, specify the initial destination according to the place you’re commuting from.
- Next, specify the destination as either “Home” or “Work”.
Once done, you’ll be able to view the fastest possible route, and the time required to travel between the locations. It’ll also show you all of the traffic conditions between the roads, and notify you if there are any sudden delays or crashes on the road.
Check Traffic on Any Browser
The process of checking the traffic between your work and home is a bit different on your browser. But overall the process is quite simple and you can easily find out the state of the traffic on the road using any device with an internet connection. Let’s find out how to do so:
- Open the Browser on your device, and navigate to the Google Maps official webpage. Log in if you haven’t already.
- Tap on the “Menu” icon on the top left corner of the home page.
- Considering you have saved your home and work addresses as clarified in the previous steps, you’ll find “Home” and “Work” under here.
- Tap on the initial location that you plan on starting from.
- Once the roads have been highlighted, tap on the menu again, and select the “Traffic” option from the menu.
- You’ll be presented with a color overlay on the roads. This can either be Green, Orange, Red, or Dark Red.
- Green indicates that there is no traffic on the road, Orange indicates a low amount of traffic, Red indicates moderate traffic, and finally Dark Red indicates heavy traffic.
- In case you want to get real-time statistics, then tap on the “Live Traffic” option.
Conclusion
Checking Google Maps before commuting between your work and home is one of the best ways to stay on time, and avoid unnecessary traffic on your way. With the plethora of features that Google Maps provides on both the browser and the app versions, it can be a bit confusing to enable this feature. We hope this article has helped you to check traffic between work and home, and access the extra features that Google Maps provides.
