Search engine giant Google recently announced a series of light apps for the audience it calls "the next billion"-people in developing regions where phones are also personal computers. The features will be rolling out later this year.

According to a Gizmodo report, Google Maps, Chrome, and even YouTube will now work with no internet connection on your Android phone.

The offline support was demoed onstage at a recent I/O conference. After pulling up directions in Maps, the phone is put into airplane mode, which is usually the kiss of death for any mapping app. But users can still poke around the map's graphics as well as view the destination's address, phone number, opening hours, and so on-they're all still there and can be expanded as needed. According to the report, turn-by-turn directions and voice directions are also supported offline.

A similar streamlined approach to offline support is used for YouTube and websites on Chrome. YouTube's feature is a simple archiving tool which allows a user to save a video for offline viewing for up to two days. Even more intriguing is something called a Network Quality Estimator for Chrome which analyzes the network connection to optimize both the search results and any webpages you click on, loading pages faster and prioritizing text and information over data-intensive images.

According to the report, the offline support will benefit the millions of users in emerging markets where service is spotty or nonexistent without a wifi connection. But these are also incredibly useful tools for navigating cities, where subways, buildings, hills, and tunnels interrupt our ability to keep tabs on where we are and where we're going.