Nokia Here Maps (Beta) for Android Now Available on Google Play Store

The Finnish company back in October had released the Here (Beta) for Android; though it could only be side-loaded on compatible Android phones initially.

Announcing the release on Google Play, the company in a blog post said, "More than a million of you have already taken Here for Android beta for a spin, with the most active downloaders coming from Germany and the USA. Today, the playground gets bigger with the beta version of Here for Android arriving for free on the Google Play store across the world."

The company explains to existing Nokia Here maps users that there is no need to uninstall the existing version and to reinstall downloaded maps or voices.

Some of the new features in the Here maps (Beta) are voice-guided navigation for 18 new countries and territories that include Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Iraq, Libya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nepal, Paraguay, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. With the addition of 18 new countries, Here maps now offers navigation in 118 countries.

Here Maps for Android brings features such as offline navigation with interactive maps and turn-by-turn voice guidance; offline maps for nearly 100 countries; public transport maps and directions for over 800 cities in over 40 countries with offline support; live traffic information for more than 40 countries; journey planning on beta.here.com; map personalisation with Collections of favourite places, and the Glympse location sharing feature.

"Additionally, we improved the stability and performance of the app, and fixed a voice-related navigation bug," the blog adds.

In addition to Here for Android, the company also announced that an iOS app is in development and can be expected to be released in early 2015. "Following the positive reviews of Here for Android, a lot of people have expressed their interest in an iOS version of our app. We really appreciate this interest and demand. Our iOS app development team is working hard on this and we plan to officially launch Here for iOS in early 2015," the company said.