If you've ever wanted to attend a new restaurant opening, but couldn't make a booking, or decided to grab a spontaneous post-work dinner with a friend and had to suffer endless queues, meals squished alongside fellow diners at the bar or trudged to a restaurant only to find you don't even stand a chance, then you'll know the frustration we're talking about.
Well, luckily for all of us, Google Maps has the solution to your woes.
In its latest update, the app can now tell users how busy restaurants are in real time, using live visit data that also shows the average amount of time customers spend in a restaurant.
It's basically like having your own personal assistant to scout out free tables at restaurants for you.
This means that users can now see the average wait-time for restaurants and make an informed decision on where to eat out, whether you're in a rush or want to nab a table at the most popular of dinner spots.
According to Food & Wine, unbeknown to most of us the app's functionality was first rolled out to the programme's desktop experience in November – just before Black Friday – but is now available on mobile apps.
As many of you will know, the map's 'Popular Times' feature in restaurant listings has previously informed users the peak visiting hours during the day.
The search engine's FAQ explained that the functionality formerly worked by predicting popular times but couldn't use live data: 'Popular times are based on average popularity over the last several weeks.
'Popularity for any given hour is shown relative to the typical peak popularity for the business for the week,' it read.
However, the new live tool now 'rolls real-time smartphone location data into its crowd estimate algorithm', according to AppleInsider, 'allowing more accurate and timely results'.
Eating out never sounded so easy.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
