Apple Working on Live Status Updates for Businesses in Apple Maps
https://appleinsider.comApple appears to be working on a new feature that will let users know how busy a place of interest is or whether it’s open, similar to the way Google Maps does.
Apple notes that “when you open an app near a point of interest (for example, a business or park) your iPhone will send location data in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple which Apple may aggregate and let users know if that point of interest is open and how busy it is.”
The feature would be similar to existing “Popular times” data offered by Google Maps. Google’s feature relies on crowdsourced data, though it only collects it from users who specifically opt in to the feature.