If you are traveling in the Paris Metro or riding the bus and rails in New York City and you don't have a clue where to transfer or stop to check out that art museum or dive bar, Google Maps 5.7 for Android may now become your tour guide.
Or at least Google Maps 5.7 for Android will show you the way, including prompting you when you need to transfer or get off the train.
You just use the app's GPS feature, which determines your current location, insert your destination, and tap the bus icon for transit directions, and away you go.
You can also use the app's navigation feature to get stop-by-stop directions -- within limitations.
Google notes that Google Maps Navigation is in beta and "Transit Navigation uses GPS location fixes and will not work indoors or underground."
Well, that's a huge, well, roadblack, if you are riding a subway.
In a post about Transit Navigation, Google says the service is now available for more than 400 cities on every continent, but Antartica.
Google adds: After starting your trip with Transit Navigation, you can open another application or put your phone away entirely and Google Maps will still display an alert in your notification bar and vibrate your phone when your stop is coming up."
Another useful feature of the app is that it provides the name of the public transportation company, a link to its website and tap to call functionality.
That's all good information to have in case the app doesn't work in the subterranean reaches of public mass transit.