Help improve a new Hours feature

[Corrie]

Oct 24 UPDATE: This feature is now also available in: Japan, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Qatar

We are asking for Local Guides' help to improve a new feature we are rolling out. The next time you visit a place that has its hours on display, snap a picture of the sign AND update the hours the regular, manual way in Google Maps. This will help improve our ability to detect the correct hours from just a photo, making it easier for everyone to contribute (plus, you'll earn TWO points - 1 for correcting the information and 1 for adding a photo of the hours!)

"Suggest an Edit" on a place in Google MapsTap "Hours" to select days to set hours forSet the opening timeSet the closing timeTap "Take Photo of Hours"Take a photo of the sign or other place the hours are displayedPublish to Google Maps (and earn points)

Currently this feature is available for Android users in select countries. This feature is not available in the following countries: China, Taiwan, South Korea, Russia, Israel, Thailand, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Ukraine, Iran, Armenia, Myanmar, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Laos, Macedonia, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and Bangladesh. We will update this post as we open this feature to additional countries.

UPDATE: This feature is now also available in: Japan, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Qatar.

What do you think of this new way to add or edit hours on Google Maps for Android?

Send feedback through the Google Maps app:

1. Open the Google Maps app
2. Touch the Menu
3. Touch Send feedback > Send app feedback.

You can also shake your phone or tablet to send us feedback. This captures a screenshot of your Google Maps screen to help us understand what is going on. You can remove this screenshot if it's not needed. To turn "shake to send feedback" on or off, follow the steps below.

1. Open the Google Maps app
2. Touch the menu > Settings.
3. Check the box or switch on "Shake to send feedback." 

Tips for giving good feedback:

• Be as specific as possible. If you're not sure what something is called, you can describe it instead. The more we know, the more likely we can fix it.
• Include as much information as you can. Tell us what you were doing, what happened, and what you expected.

[SiddhantA]

@Corrie Just a small suggestion/feedback. Some places do not have website of their own. For them, it would be better to add None/Not Available as Suggested Edit under Website. At present, it is mandatory to be an url for the website of the place. Thanks!

Cheers,

Sid

[BrianHeskie]

I agree with @SiddhantA about None/Not available as a response about places without a website, it addresses a need similar to the improvement I suggested where a place does not have opening hours.

[tausifp]

Great

[xTremePower]

Hello,

I have a suggestion about the hour selection in Google Maps

I'm in France, and well.. you know, french people love the "sieste" 😛  that why many place are closed between 12:00 an 14:00

When I go in offices and ask the opening hours, I have to enter twice all .... it's not really practical... can you add an option to use 2 clock at the same time on same screen for same days ?

For exemple, take a shop :

Monday-Wendsday : 8:00 - 12:00  14:00 - 18:00

Saturday : 9:00 12:00  14:00 17:00    (this type of opening hours are used many times in france)

For this shop i have to enter that in four time :

-I have to check all days from Monday to Wendsday, set 8:00 - 12:00

-check all days from Monday to Wendsday AGAIN and set 14:00 - 18:00

-check saturday set 9:00 12:00

-check saturday once AGAIN and set 14:00 17:00

Many times it's annoying for me AND for the shop owner ....

[Juan ManuelL]

I've also found several businesses in which saturdays or sundays are open but by appointment only. This happens especially with services, stylists, dentists, doctors and other similar.

[DennisS81]

Die Idee und Funktion die Öffnungszeiten per Foto zu erfassen finde ich gut. Als Nachteil sehe ich leider bislang die Hinterlegung dieses Fotos bei den regulären Bildern des jeweiligen Ortes. Besser wäre es wenn man beim Hochladen das Foto so kennzeichen kann das es sich um Öffnungszeiten handelt und damit das Bild nur zur Datenauswertung verwendet wird. Problematisch wird es dann ja wenn sich die Zeiten nochmal ändern und dann zwei Bilder geladen sind, wird dann die Zeit durchs zweite Bild erneut geändert? Zumindest sollte das zweite Bild das erste Automatisch ersetzen können. Am besten bei der Auswahl Öffnungszeiten Hinzufügen ein "Per Bild" funktion einfügen wodurch das Bild nur im Hintergrund verarbeitet wird und nicht offen Gepostet.

[KevH]

I came across another scenario yesterday at a fitness centre.

For members it is open 24/7 with card access to get in, while staff hours are 9 to 5  weekdays for trainer sessions etc.

Or in other words, there is a limited set of full service hours, and longer partial service hours.

[geoosm]

@DennisS81

Hatte ich so aehnlich auch schon weiter oben vorgeschlagen.

Bspw. kann man dafuer ja nen extra Tab aufmachen, so wie es das schon fuer 360 Gard und fuer Fotos von Speisen gibt.

Will die Community Managerin so weitergeben.

Bzgl. des 2. Bildes.

Da gehe ich von aus, dass die Oeffnungszeiten korrigiert werden, wenn spaeter erneut ein Bild mit den Oeffnungszeiten hochgeladen wird.

Aber problematisch wird es tatsaechlich, wenn beide Fotos bestehen bleiben. Und das ist aktuell so.

Als Nutzer kann man ja bspw. in der Maps App gar nicht sehen, wann ein Foto hochgeladen wurde.

[DennisS81]

@geoosm Ja untergliederte Tabs wären ja schon eine gute Lösung, der Zeitstempel ist im Moment wirklich das Problem, wenn ich bei den Bildern die dem Ort zugeordnet sind 2 Öffnungszeiten sehe, so kann ich mir im Moment nicht sicher sein welches die aktuellen Zeiten sind, da 1. wurden die Zeiten vom zweiten Bild übernommen? 2. die Bilder wie denke ich mal alle wissen die einem Ort zugeordnet sind nicht in Chronologischer Reihenfolge angezeigt werden..... Aber danke das du das Problem schon weiter geleitet hast, denke nur so kommen wir in der Entwicklung am effizientesten vorwärts. Ich bin im Local Guides Connect noch zu neu muss mich hier noch etwas zurecht finden hatte mich bislang auf maps Korrekturen und so beschränkt. M.f.G. Dennis

[MayankBagaria]

Very useful feature, just a feedback that re-considering the position of Take Photos for Hours and placing it above manual hours input, might affect the way user interacts with hours in more positive way.

[Paresh_Ratan]

What about India?

India is absent on both lists.

[MayankBagaria]

@Paresh_Ratan It's available in India, have tried

[PavelSarwar]

we missed it.

[JWD]

Is this avalible in Canada?

[Saad_AlDossary]

Hey @Corrie, can you have a look at my feature request for business hours in Saudi Arabia.

https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/Feedback-and-Feature-Requests/Feature-Request-Business-hours-i...

[MichaelRichter]

I would like to see this new feature on IOS in Germany too. It seems to be a cool feature from what I can see in the screenshots.

[AndreaS]

Just had a bad experience regarding opening hours which showed to me a limit of google maps. Where I live, in concomitance with the change of the time to DST, almost all supermarkets change their opening hours to the winter regime, which closes earlier (I didn't remember that!). Would it be possible to show both times, Summer opening hours and Winter opening hours? I believe this could be useful also for a lot of turistic places which have "high season" and "low season"... of course it should be noted also on which date there is the switch to the summer time/winter time.

Thank you all.

Andrea

[Ale5ander]

Опять только для Android... Как же надоели.

[EfimovPavel]

А когда в России будет доступно данное изменение?

[YK1001]

Have options to upload Business Hours Photo 

Android Maps 9.40.2

Feature opened in Taiwan with Android Maps v9.40.2.

@Corrie, would you please advice what will happen if we just upload the photo without enter the hours normally?  Will the system try to detect from the photos without the manual entry? 

[geoosm]

@YK1001 thats exactly what this feature is for.

You dont need to set or adjust the opening hours manually.

Just upload a photo which shows the opening hours. Google will do the rest for you.

It takes up to 3 days.

[Tea ManorP]

Waiting for this in Taiwan (and iOS, please)

orther question, I have a Appointment shop for 6 year, I'm cofused about OPEN-CLOSED time on Google map set,

but this kind of store is more and more in Taiwan,
I know this is much more in orther country specialy in Europe,
hope add a specialy choose for this.

[GeorgyG]

Hi, @geoosm. 

It's specified in feature description: "snap a picture of the sign AND update the hours the regular, manual way in Google Maps." Have you tried it only with a photo?

[Corrie]

@YK1001 You can just add a photo if you want. We are asking Local Guides to do both (add a photo and manually add the hours) to help us train the system to pull the hours out of the photo. 

[Actarus97450]

Excelent idea

To the future a simpe picture will be interpretate and translate to text ? 

[geoosm]

@GeorgyG yes, I tried it and it works if you only upload a photo.

And all was correct.

But as @Corrie mentioned its better to do both to improve the system.

[DelmoT]

Boas noticias. 

No aguardo para minha região.

---

@CorrieD wrote:

Oct 24 UPDATE: This feature is now also available in: Japan, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Qatar

We are asking for Local Guides' help to improve a new feature we are rolling out. The next time you visit a place that has its hours on display, snap a picture of the sign AND update the hours the regular, manual way in Google Maps. This will help improve our ability to detect the correct hours from just a photo, making it easier for everyone to contribute (plus, you'll earn TWO points - 1 for correcting the information and 1 for adding a photo of the hours!)

"Suggest an Edit" on a place in Google MapsTap "Hours" to select days to set hours forSet the opening timeSet the closing timeTap "Take Photo of Hours"Take a photo of the sign or other place the hours are displayedPublish to Google Maps (and earn points)

Currently this feature is available for Android users in select countries. This feature is not available in the following countries: China, Taiwan, South Korea, Russia, Israel, Thailand, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Ukraine, Iran, Armenia, Myanmar, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Laos, Macedonia, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and Bangladesh. We will update this post as we open this feature to additional countries.

UPDATE: This feature is now also available in: Japan, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Qatar.

What do you think of this new way to add or edit hours on Google Maps for Android?

Send feedback through the Google Maps app:

1. Open the Google Maps app
2. Touch the Menu
3. Touch Send feedback > Send app feedback.

You can also shake your phone or tablet to send us feedback. This captures a screenshot of your Google Maps screen to help us understand what is going on. You can remove this screenshot if it's not needed. To turn "shake to send feedback" on or off, follow the steps below.

1. Open the Google Maps app
2. Touch the menu > Settings.
3. Check the box or switch on "Shake to send feedback." 

Tips for giving good feedback:

• Be as specific as possible. If you're not sure what something is called, you can describe it instead. The more we know, the more likely we can fix it.
• Include as much information as you can. Tell us what you were doing, what happened, and what you expected.

---

[Kamaalu]

Thanks for adding futur

[Kamaalu]

Some places do not have website of their own. For them, it would be better to add None/Not Available as Suggested Edit under Website. At present, it is mandatory to be an url for the website of the place. Thanks!

[2M]

A great addition I will definetly be testing it out

[Basantas]

I am basant sahu from odisha india 

[DamiàV]

Sigo aprendiendo el funcionamiento. Un saludo a todos

[BigMad]

Very good, I had already made the picture at the times in December 2015 (https://goo.gl/maps/m8tKmtDAQWK2), in that case, I also had to modify the times manually and approval has been long...now I hope it's faster

[Anonymous]

Excellent feature.

[JorgeG]

+1 for this feature 🙂

[Sanjivbarall]

yeah ! great work

[monchobi]

good change

[AniH]

Good feature. One more suggestion:

Just recently found a new location which has open every 1st and 3rd Friday of a month. Kind of exotic, I know. However, I can only select all Fridays in the opening hours dialog.

Would be great to have a more flexible way to enter time rules, more like it is with repeating events in Google Calendar or Google Keep reminders.

[CGLee65]

This is a super nice feature and very useful when traveling.

[Pea]

Hi @Corrie I've been testing this for a few days, taking a picture AND updating the hours manually as requested. I've only updated a few businesses so far so I don't have a big data set of evidence but one thing happens intermittently.

On 16 Nov I updated the hours for a local business and right away got a "Published - Success" email back with the hours corrected. So far so good! Then today, three days later, I got another email for the same business saying "Thank you, your edit is being reviewed". In the email the corrected hours had been crossed out and the same correct hours re-entered. The email also says I made the edit today, which I did not. 

It would seem one of the entry methods (I'm guessing the photo) sometimes takes a while to work its way thru the system and be read. Even though the photo of the hours itself went live right away.

If this phantom second edit now in review gets denied (because it's a pointless edit that doesn't change anything) would it be a problem for trust rating?

[jErnestoF]

There are just too many futures that only available for android users and not iOS... Yeah... Not vary happy anout that!

[YaronS]

What I find lacking about this feature is setting different working hours for the different periods of the year, for example: Akko Magistrate Court has different working hours during summer. Another case I can think of is a swimming pool that closes during winter, does that make sense?

[AlexP]

I ran into a situation today, which led me to conclusion that this feature has some room for improvement. Not every business has regular hours. I took pictures of a small hair design salon today and the lady, who runs the business, is on call and doesn't have regular hours. So I left "Add Hours" quesiton unanswered, while I knew that they don't have regular hours.

The same logic applies to web sites, some of the businesses don't have websites no matter how cheap it is to build one.

So, it would be great if the app would have a multichoice answer - no website, but planing to create one at a later time, not aplicable, and so on for the website and something like "no regular hours" for hours.

[MicheleMarques]

Also, some businesses are seasonal and are closed part of the year. 

[Pea]

Hi @AlexP 

If the lady who runs the business is on call, it sounds like the place is often left unstaffed and at random hours of the day? In which case there is some doubt this should be on the map. Imagine a maps user turning up and finding the place closed, a bad experience which relects on the store and on Google Maps. Perhaps @Corrie could advise

Btw I took a look at the listing that you added your photo to https://goo.gl/maps/BiVT7ZtPWyS2 and noticed the website is a dead link. As the guy on the ground there maybe you could check that out

[KevH]

@AlexP and @Pea

The hours on the listing are supposed to be the regular hours that a walk in customer can expect to find someone there. 

If the staff turn up at variable times on a Monday, anytime between 6am and 10am, and leave anytime between 11am and 7pm, then the business is always staffed from 10am to 11am every Monday, so those are the hours you can add, even though there might be someone there at other times. 

Google doesn't require a business to be staffed 40 hours per week to be entitled to Maps listing.

It would be good to have more flexibility, always open 10am to 11am, typically open 9am to 4pm, appointments available 6am to 10pm etc

[AlexP]

Hello @PhillipF,

I don't think that businesses with irregular hours should disappear from the map. At least, I would see a such map as inaccurate.

Links-wise... I wasn't asked to verify that information and I don't think that manual verification is the best way to tackle the problem. A bot can do that with no effort.

Thanks.

Alex.

[AlexP]

HEllo @KevH,

Well... I talked to the lady, in fact to 2 of them, as I covered 2 businesses in that corner, and both of them told me that they don't want their business hours to appear on the maps because they work irregular hours, I asked if they want the pictures and they OKed the pictures.

Thanks.

Alex.

[PhillipF]

@AlexP 

Just an FYI you tagged me, but I think you meant to tag @Pea (1 l instead of two).

[Corrie]

@AlexP @KevH @Pea It is always best to encourage a business owner to claim their listing (its free) on Google Maps. This allows them to set the hours they want - including no hours if they are by Appointment Only. You can see more about options business owners have here. This business owner may want to learn more about booking appointments directly through Google Maps.