Google Kills off “Nearby Places” Feature on its Phone App

Following an earlier announcement by Google that it will soon remove the Nearby Places feature from the Google Phone app, it looks like the once-handy function has finally been removed by the company, according to new reports from the folks over at 9to5Google.

In its original announcement, Google noted that not many people used the Nearby Places feature on their phone app, which led to the subsequent decision to shut it down. As per the original announcement:

In the coming months, the “Nearby Places” feature in the Phone by Google app will be deprecated… We’ve found only a very small number of people use this feature, and the vast majority of users go to Google Search or Maps when seeking business-related phone numbers; those experiences also provide richer results and contact info for those businesses.

READ: Google’s Massive Feature Drop Brings Much-Welcome Upgrades to its Devices

The feature worked by letting users search for local business phone numbers by directly inputting the business’ name into the app. Clearly, most users preferred searching for business numbers via the actual Google Maps app, as well as through Google search directly.

Source: 9to5Google